ABSTRACT
When China's leaders decided to expand educational exchanges to draw in technological benefits from the West, they did not anticipate the brain drain that has ensued. Deng Xiaoping reportedly argued that even if China lost 5 percent of its scholars to the West, the open policy in education would still be a success. Given that little more than 5 percent are currently returning, it is little wonder that so much soul searching has been going on in Beijing and that policy on sending students abroad has gone through numerous permutations. Clearly, the leadership never anticipated this "fever to go abroad" (chu guo ri) or that so few people would want to return. 1 It felt that patriotism would keep people attached to their homeland. But the economic gap between East and West, the political instability in China in the late 1980s, the continuing concerns about the post-Deng transition, and the desires of talented people for an environment in which they can develop and use their skills have all come together to generate China's brain drain.
