July 05, 2023 13:46 Last Updated: 13:54
According to Li Cheng, a scholar on China in the United States, he has resigned from his post as director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. Next, he will be a professor of political science at the University of Hong Kong, where he will create a new research center for China and the United States. Center for the Study of Global Governance, whose faculty appointments begin July 1.
Before leaving the United States for Hong Kong, Li Cheng said goodbye to his mentor Kissinger in New York and thanked him. “The Paper” pictures
Li Cheng told the domestic media “The Paper” that he spent 17 unforgettable years at the Brookings Institution. After nearly two years of consideration, the decision to accept the teaching position of the University of Hong Kong was formally made. Li Cheng hopes that in the next few years, the research center he leads will become an important platform for “the world to understand China” and “public policy exchanges between China and foreign countries”.
The reason why he chose to settle in Hong Kong, China, Li Cheng expressed that he hoped to use Hong Kong as a “special place” to promote peace and bring together those who are difficult to gather in Washington. He also called Hong Kong “a city of subtle and real political influence” that could play a positive role in Sino-US relations.
Li Cheng, 67 years old, was born and grew up in Shanghai. He studied in the United States in 1985 and joined the Brookings Institution in 2006. He has been leading the John L. Thornton China Center since 2014 and is the longest-serving director of the center. Li Cheng has extensive research in the fields of Chinese politics, contemporary Chinese society, and Sino-US relations. He has written many articles for Western political and academic circles to analyze Chinese issues and enhance Western understanding of Chinese politics.
The “South China Morning Post” mentioned in a report on July 1 that Li Cheng’s departure means that the China watch circle in Washington, USA has lost a key figure. The Brookings Institution has not yet announced who will be Cheng Li’s successor.
Li Cheng left Washington under the background of intensified Sino-US competition and increasingly unsmooth communication channels. When talking about his decision to take a post in Hong Kong, Li Cheng told the media that Washington has become more and more unfamiliar to him, and “McCarthyism” is resurging in the United States. For Chinese Americans like him, life in America has become “more uncomfortable”.
“When I came to the U.S., I changed my name from Li Cheng to Cheng Li. Now I can change my name back,” Li Cheng said. Chinese surnames are placed first, while Americans are placed second. This is not only a return of Li Cheng’s personal name, but also another return of Chinese talents.
“Lianhe Zaobao” published a commentary on July 3 titled “Talent Decoupling” under the New Sino-US Cold War, pointing out that Li Cheng’s return is another microcosm of the current Sino-US “New Cold War” background.
The article pointed out that when Trump was in office, the U.S. Department of Justice formulated the “China Action Plan”, which led to many Chinese scholars facing criminal charges. Before Li Cheng, many Chinese scholars and researchers in the United States chose to leave. Although the “China Action Plan” will be terminated in 2022, some Chinese scholars still worry that as Sino-US relations deteriorate, they will continue to be suspected and excluded in the United States like Qian Xuesen’s generation.
The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2022 that data collected by researchers at Princeton University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States showed that in 2021, more than 1,400 Chinese scientists who received academic training in the United States gave up their studies in the United States. Opportunities from American universities or companies choose to return home. This is a 22% increase from the previous year.
Among them, Shing-Tung Yau, winner of the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics, is one of the most high-profile departures. He left Harvard in April 2022 to work at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Qiu Chengtong was born in Shantou, grew up in Hong Kong until he graduated from university, and then went to the United States for further studies. According to reports, Qiu Chengtong said in a speech to Harvard University freshmen in September 2021 that when the US government criticized the academic environment in the Soviet Union, “I can’t think of a resurrection here.”
The returned talents exposed by the Chinese media later included Yan Ning, a professor at Princeton University, and Xie Xiaoliang, a tenured professor at Harvard University and a biophysical chemist. Xie Xiaoliang is the first tenured professor from mainland China introduced by Harvard after China’s reform and opening up.
In November 2022, Yan Ning resigned from his teaching position at Princeton and returned to China to establish the Shenzhen Academy of Medical Sciences.
America is built on talent. After the Biden administration came to power, visa restrictions on Chinese students and researchers have not stopped. The New York Times published an article titled “The United States Shouldn’t Shut Out Chinese Scientific Research Talents” in May this year, pointing out that the United States’ excessive concerns about China’s influence have threatened the ability of the United States to attract top talents, which will damage the prospects for the development of scientific research in the United States , and ultimately hit the U.S. economy and national strength.
The “New York Times” article points out the core issue: China is and will continue to be an important global player, and understanding China’s internal dynamics is very important for Americans in various fields. Yet the United States runs the risk of an entire generation knowing little about China.
The analysis of the “Lianhe Zaobao” article pointed out that from scientific researchers to experts on China, the confrontation caused by the ideological dispute between the United States and China has spread to the academic circles, resulting in the obstruction of talent exchanges between the two countries, which is not good for the United States and China. Experts on China in the United States can play a role in promoting exchanges between the two countries, and the best scientific research is usually done by teams of top talents across borders. When national security is generalized, artificial barriers will only lead to deepening differences and extremes.
The article believes that just like economic decoupling and technological decoupling, there will be no real winners in talent decoupling, and talent exchange is a core part of non-governmental substantive exchanges, and the impact of decoupling may be even more serious.
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2023-07-05 05:55:58
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