China Makes a Play for Foreign Tech Workers

Vaishnavi Srinivasagopalan, a skilled Indian IT professional who has worked in both India and the US, has been looking for work in China. As the AP reports, Beijing's new K-visa program targeting science and technology workers could turn that dream into a reality. The K-visa rolled out by Beijing last month is part of China's widening effort to catch up with the US in the race for global talent and cutting edge technology. It coincides with uncertainties over the US H-1B program under tightened immigrations policies implemented by President Trump. The K-visa "is a good option for people like me to work abroad," says Srinivasagopalan.

The K-visa supplements China's existing visa schemes, including the R-visa for foreign professionals, but with loosened requirements, such as not requiring an applicant to have a job offer before applying. Stricter US policies toward foreign students and scholars under Trump, including hiking fees for the H-1B visa for foreign skilled workers to $100,000 for new applicants, are leading some non-American professionals and students to consider going elsewhere.

The ruling Communist Party has made global leadership in advanced technologies a top priority, paying massive government subsidies to support research and development of areas such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and robotics. "Beijing perceives the tightening of immigration policies in the US as an opportunity to position itself globally as welcoming foreign talent and investment more broadly," said Barbara Kelemen, head of Asia at security intelligence firm Dragonfly. But with the jobless rate for Chinese aged 16-24 excluding students at nearly 18%, the campaign to attract more foreign professionals is raising questions. "The current job market is already under fierce competition," said Zhou Xinying, a 24-year-old postgraduate student at Zhejiang University.

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For decades, China has been losing top talent to developed countries as many stayed and worked in the US and Europe after they finished studies there. "The US is probably more at risk of losing would-be H-1B applicants to other Western economies, including the UK and European Union, than to China," said Michael Feller, chief strategist at consultancy Geopolitical Strategy. "The US may be sabotaging itself, but it's doing so from a far more competitive position in terms of its attractiveness to talent. China will need to do far more than offer convenient visa pathways to attract the best."