The Thousand Talents Plan or Thousand Talents Program (TTP), or Overseas High-Level Talent Recruitment Programs is a program by the government of the People's Republic of China to recruit experts in science and technology from abroad, principally but not exclusively from overseas Chinese communities. The original program was replaced by another program called Qiming, administered by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Law enforcement and counterintelligence agencies in the United States, Australia, Canada, and other countries have raised concerns about the program as a vector for intellectual property theft and espionage.
Background
According to data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, 92 percent of Chinese who received a science or technology Ph.D. in the U.S. in 2002 were still in the U.S. in 2007. To reverse this trend and to build the size and prestige of China's university system, the central government of China recognized the need and turned to attracting overseas Chinese and top foreign-born talent from the world's best universities. The Thousand Talent program is the most prominent of China's more than 200 talent recruitment programs. It grew out of the "Talent Superpower Strategy" of the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2007. The CCP Central Committee and State Council of the People's Republic of China elevated the program in 2010 to become the top-level award given through China's National Talent Development Plan to strengthen innovation and international competitiveness within China. In 2019, the program was re-branded as the "National High-end Foreign Experts Recruitment Plan." The CCP's United Front Work Department's Western Returned Scholars Association is the official representative body for program participants. China also administers a "Young Thousand Talents" program as a "youth" branch of the Thousand Talents Plan. It focuses on the recruitment of early career STEM scholars. Previous attempts to attract foreign scientific talent through a decentralized network of approximately 600 "talent recruitment stations" worldwide had been largely ineffective at convincing top researchers to leave developed countries permanently.
Selection The Thousand Talents program primarily targets Chinese citizens who were educated in elite programs overseas and who have been successful as entrepreneurs, professionals, and researchers. The program also recognizes a small number of elite foreign-born experts with skills that are critical to China's international competitiveness in science and innovation. International experts in the latter category are typically winners of major prizes such as the Nobel Prize and the Fields Medal, and are expected first to have made internationally renowned contributions to a field of technological importance to China, and secondly to hold either a tenured position at one of the world's top universities or a senior role in an internationally important research organization. In 2013, the Junior Thousand Talent Plan was created to attract faculty members under the age of 40 who have performed high impact research at one of the world's top universities. The program includes two mechanisms: resources for permanent recruitment into Chinese academia, and resources for short-term appointments that typically target international experts who have full-time employment at a leading international university or research laboratory. Within a decade of the announcement of the Thousand Talents Plan in 2008, it had attracted more than 7,000 people overall. More than 1,400 people participating in the Thousand Talents Plan, including several foreigners, specialize in life sciences fields. More than 300 scientists and scholars at Australian tertiary institutions are connected to the program, according to research by Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The Thousand Talents Plan professorship is the highest academic honor awarded by the State Council, analogous to the top-level award given by the Ministry of Education.
Benefits to participants The program confers the prestigious title of "Thousand Talents Plan Distinguished Professor" (千人计划特聘教授) or "Junior Thousand Talents Plan Professor" upon the selected individuals, and provides benefits including this prestigious title, high pay, and visa privileges. The program is the first ever to enable individuals of extraordinary ability to gain access to Chinese immigration visas, including "long-stay visas." The program provides a one-time bonus of 1 million RMB to select individuals, substantial resources for research and academic exchange, and assistance with housing and transportation costs. Thousand Talents scholars are eligible for high levels of Chinese government funding. Participants in the Young Thousand Talents program receive a one-time award of 500,000 RMB and start-up grants between 1 million and three million RMB. These packages are typically matched by host institutions in China or local governments. Participants also receive fringe benefits including subsidized housing and prioritization when applying for grants.
Reaction
Conflict of interest and fraud allegations Some Thousand Talents Plan Professors have reported fraud in the program including misappropriated grant funding, poor accommodations, and violations of research ethics. Concerns were raised because some TTP contracts contain non-disclosure agreements that forbid informing the home university or home government of the award. Dismissals due to undisclosed connections to the TTP have taken place. In 2019, executives and researchers at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute resigned following scrutiny into their links with the TTP. Individuals who receive either of China's two top academic awards, the Thousand Talents Professorship and the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Scholar award, have become targets for recruitment by China's wealthiest universities so frequently that the Ministry of Education issued notices in both 2013 and 2017 discouraging Chinese universities from recruiting away top talent from one another.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
