Reverse brain drain: Chinese AI scientists return home after years in US

China has long been the world’s largest source of top-tier AI talent, however, 88% of those who completed graduate studies in the U.S. remained there to work, according to the South China Morning Post citing a 2020 MarcoPolo study.

Chinese researchers also made up the largest share of international AI talent at U.S.-based institutions and companies. But escalating U.S.-China technological competition has altered that dynamic.

Washington has tightened visa policies and increased scrutiny of Chinese researchers, while cutting science funding and canceling grants at leading universities. These measures, alongside higher H-1B visa costs, have contributed to a reverse talent outflow, according to The Washington Post.

In the first half of 2025 alone, around 50 tenure-track scholars of Chinese descent left U.S. universities for China, based on a tally by Princeton University researchers. The figure adds to more than 850 such departures since 2011.

Lizzi Lee, a research fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told Channel News Asia that China stands to benefit most in sectors such as AI, robotics, and biotechnology. "In addition to being younger and more focused on career advancement, Chinese returnees from the U.S. also see promise in an ecosystem that seems to be producing ever more breakthroughs such as AI with DeepSeek," Lee said.

In this story, VnExpress International highlights the most prominent AI scientists who have made the move in recent years.

Zhu Songchun

Song-Chun Zhu, Founding Director of the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence. Photo courtesy of Song-Chun Zhu's website

Zhu, an expert in computer vision formerly at the University of California, Los Angeles, returned to China in Aug. 2020. He later took up professorships at Peking University and Tsinghua University, while Beijing authorities funded his Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence.

Mark Nitzberg, Zhu’s long-time friend and Harvard classmate, told The Guardian he once questioned Zhu of his move, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Zhu said: "They are giving me resources that I could never get in the United States. If I want to make this system that I have in my mind, then this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I have to do it."

Born in 1968 in Ezhou, Hubei province, Zhu earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1996 and joined UCLA in 2002 after earlier roles at Stanford and Ohio State. He later won the Marr Prize, one of the highest honors in computer vision. In 2004, he co-founded the Lotus Hill Institute in his hometown to build large-scale datasets for AI systems, but shut it down in 2010 after concluding that data alone could not create true intelligence.

Since returning, he has reportedly received several hundred million dollars in research funding. In a proposal to Chinese policymakers, Zhu described advanced AI as "the strategic commanding heights of international scientific and technological competition in the next 10 to 20 years," comparing its impact to "the atomic bomb in the information technology field," according to Newsweek.

Fu Tianfan

Fu Tianfan, an expert in AI-powered scientific research. Photo courtesy of his website

Tianfan, 33, joined Nanjing University in Dec. 2025 after serving as a tenure-track assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. His research focuses on AI-driven drug discovery and materials science.

Fu told SCMP that China’s expanding investment in higher education has created new opportunities for early-career scientists. "Nanjing University combines a rich cultural heritage with strong leadership in the natural sciences. Its broad strengths in basic science offer fertile ground for my research in applying artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery."

Fu plans to build an interdisciplinary research team and collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to accelerate drug development using AI. "I plan to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies and help move drug candidates closer to market approval. By leveraging AI, we can shorten development timelines and lower the cost of drug discovery," he said.

Before moving to the U.S., Fu earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2015 and 2018. He later received his PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2023 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, alongside research roles at IQVIA in Boston and Disney Research.

Haibin Ling

AI researcher Haibin Ling. Photo courtesy of Westlake University

Ling, a prominent AI researcher known for developing the core algorithm behind the LeafSnap plant-identification app, has also returned to China late last year. Westlake University announced in late Dec. 2025 that Ling joined as a chair professor in artificial intelligence and will lead its Intelligent Computing and Application Lab.

Before returning, Ling was a professor at Stony Brook University and an IEEE Fellow, one of the highest distinctions awarded by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Ling, 51, said the move was driven by greater freedom to explore new research directions. "Many traditional AI fields have matured," he said. "Real breakthroughs now require exploring new and less-traveled paths."

Ling earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Peking University before completing his PhD at the University of Maryland in 2006. His work spans computer vision, visual tracking, and applications in medical imaging and augmented reality.

He has received multiple awards, including the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and was named among the top 1% of most cited researchers globally by Clarivate in 2024.