{
  "id": 9418363,
  "title": "China is leveraging its diaspora to boost the economy, unlike India",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/china-is-leveraging-its-diaspora-to-boost-the-economy-unlike-india",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-23T21:30:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "South China Morning Post",
    "slug": "south-china-morning-post",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3367636/china-leveraging-its-diaspora-boost-economy-unlike-india"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "India and China both possess vast diasporas, yet they employ divergent strategies to harness their members' potential for economic advancement. In the post-1991 era, India's perspective evolved from viewing its emigrants as a \"brain drain\" to recognizing their value as a conduit for capital, technology, and global markets. Consequently, the Indian government established a Ministry overseeing overseas Indians in 2004, later integrating it with the Ministry of External Affairs in 2016.\n\nContrastingly, China recognized the merits of overseas education earlier, with Deng Xiaoping championing the cause as early as 1978. Deng's vision led to the creation of a policy to send 3,000 Chinese students abroad annually to bolster the nation's scientific community. This strategy, despite initial setbacks like Deng's interrupted studies, bore fruit post-2001 with China's entry into the World Trade Organization.\n\nMultinational corporations like Microsoft, Intel, and Oracle capitalized on this trend by establishing research and technology hubs in China, generating high-paying jobs that enticed Chinese expatriates to return. In response, China embarked on initiatives such as the \"Thousand Talents\" program in 2008, aimed at attracting global talent. This shift in focus led to a surge in the number of Chinese researchers publishing scientific papers, ultimately culminating in China outpacing the United States in the number of scientific publications by 2018.\n\nA testament to China's success is Yang Zhilin, who returned from America in 2019 to co-found Moonshot AI, a formidable competitor in artificial intelligence. Beijing's Zhongguancun region is quickly becoming a formidable rival to Silicon Valley, reflecting the country's growing prowess in the tech sphere.\n\nWhile India's diaspora's economic impact revolves around remittances and skilled labor, China's diaspora is increasingly contributing to technology, intellectual property, and commercial networks. According to a 2023 study, Chinese researchers who returned to China contributed to 38% of research papers written from a Chinese address, while Chinese-born researchers in the US contributed to 27% of US-addressed papers. Remarkably, papers involving Chinese diaspora and returnee researchers enjoyed a higher citation impact. China's emphasis on bringing back overseas talent underscores its aspiration to build long-term economic and technological strength, distinguishing its approach from India's short-term focus on remittances.",
  "summary": "A country’s diaspora can be a symbol of its pride and power. A nation’s diaspora can help it build international value through success stories, promote its soft power through culture and contribute to its economic progress through remittances, investments and transfers of expertise. India and China have among the world’s largest diasporas. They also offer two very different models of how…",
  "key_points": [
    "India's diaspora strategy evolved from brain drain to capital/contribution recognition",
    "China pioneered overseas education in 1978, Deng Xiaoping's vision"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Reuters Business via SCMP",
        "title": "China is leveraging its diaspora to boost the economy, unlike India",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/china-is-leveraging-its-diaspora-to-boost-the-economy-unlike-india-9418689",
        "published": "2026-09-23T21:30:06.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}