Foreign-educated Chinese entrepreneurs in the U.S. are returning home to start their businesses because they are accomplishing more at a faster rate due to lower labor costs, a massive consumer base and nearly 24/7 access to factories, NBC News reports.
Additionally, the pay discrepancy between China and Silicon Valley has dwindled, meaning China can poach U.S.-educated engineers and pay close to what those professionals were offered in America.
A report released in July 2018 found nine of 10 Chinese students who study abroad return home, a figure that has increased greatly since 2010. In 2017, more than 480,900 overseas Chinese students returned to China.
About 80% now go back, up from about 33% in 2007, according to China's Ministry of Education. According to NBC, some 15% take jobs in China's tech sector.
A survey found the top reasons listed by students who moved back were to reunite with family and friends; China's booming economic growth and unfavorable overseas economic, political and social environments, such as work and immigration policies.
As a result, the U.S. is missing out on potential top talent.
"If there are talented people who would be willing to stay, we need to keep them," James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, told NBC News.
The uncertainty over immigration, he added, "has put a huge effort into enticing these students back."
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