China has submitted security -focused laws that affect researchers who want to send data abroad.Credit: Noel Celis/AFP via Getty
Donald Trump’s second state as a US president brought new concerns that the administration could lead to the revival of the China initiative, which launched legal issues against scientists from the country in an attempt to counter scientific espionage.
Also in China, foreign researchers move in an increasingly authoritarian environment that focuses security. They did not face a targeted campaign like the China Initiative, and many still feel welcomed in the country. But the difficult regulations that follow the Covid-19 pandemic, the new data laws and other restrictions are challenges.
The signing of the United States and China is a new scientific agreement – but with severe restrictions
“There were many foreigners, including foreign scientists, in China before Covid,” says a researcher abroad in Beijing, who did not want to obtain the name of uncertainty about how the authorities interacted. “Many friends have left in the past five years.” But the researcher has a great work, which prevented them from leaving. “I love her here,” they say.
It is difficult to obtain statistics on foreign researchers in China, but the number is believed to be relatively small. Halder Berg Hararson, who lived in Beijing until last year and ran Yurarakis, a platform that supports European researchers in China, analyzed the names of authors in scientific publications and is estimated that there are between 5,000 to 10,000 foreign researchers in the country with a PhD. In contrast, at least 100,000 foreign worlds are estimated at this level in the United States.
Lock fears
The strict management of the Chinese government of the epidemic is one of the reasons why this number has decreased and has decreased over the past few years. China prevented foreigners who left from returning during the parts of 2020, and imposed high -charging measures in 2022. “The way they dealt from the beginning was not very leading to preserving foreign talents,” says Hararson, who is now living in Brussels. He returned to Europe for family and professional reasons.
Euroaxess found that by the fall of 2022, 40-50 % of foreign academics left China, compared to 2019 numbers. “It was a big factor.”
The unknown researcher in Beijing remembers that health officials who are calling in the middle of the night are calling for a new Covid-19 test after the previous test results were not crucial.
Another foreign academic in southern China says, whose identity was not disclosed to be unknown to speak more freely without the need for approval from his research institution. The researcher says that foreigners have suffered hostility because they are believed to be more likely to develop Covid-19-for example, some residents have avoided sitting next to public transport. (The Ministry of Science and Technology in China did not respond natureRequest to comment on concerns about the effect of epidemic locks.)
During the royal epidemic, the strict Chinese restrictions pushed the migration of foreign researchers from China.Credit: AFP via Getty
Kārlis Rokpelnis, a social scientist based in Beijing with 15 years of experience in China, says the response of Covid-19 gave foreign researchers a “dramatic awareness” to the amount of control of the Chinese state. nature With personal qualities.
Data laws
What’s more, over the past decade, China has implemented security -focused laws that have increased “alertness” about whether academics in China can send possible sensitive research abroad. Many countries have data regulations. “But China’s words, I would like to say, sit on the tougher and most mysterious party of the spectrum.”
The uncertainty about these laws has led to some joint research projects. “I have heard about cooperation projects that have not come out, because they were unable to reach a clear understanding with their Chinese counterparts,” says Hararson.
For example, the China Data Security Law, which covers all types of data, including research data, may require an official permit to send specific information outside China. There is an exemption for academic data, unless it contains personal information or is considered “important”; These require official checks before exporting them. Roger Karsers, a Chinese database at the University of Leiden, says, but what is considered “important” has not yet been clarified.
Rokpelnis says so far, the laws have mostly affected researchers who work with medical data. He says, “I did not meet anyone who said,” Oh, I could not conduct my experience. “
VPN problems
As in some other countries, foreign spies warning appeared in some Chinese research organizations, with a phone number. “The bad man in the poster looked like me,” says a researcher in southern China. But he says, “I did not feel anything about the people who accuse me of spying.” In his experience, the Chinese companies with which he works are less guarded by intellectual property than some UK companies with which they cooperated.