Give Students More I.eeway
Ten years ago, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau issued four passports each day. Now the staff must work long hours to process more than 1, 000 a day.
People's Daily reports that more than 70,000 Chinese students and scholars are now studying abroad with still more ready to go.
While many people are worried about the brain drain problem, the article said that whatever the motives of students who leave, there is no doubt that they cherish a deep feeling towards the motherland.
It has been suggested that people who fail to returnon time should be granted "temporary leave from their posts" to encourage them to return at any time.
Among those who joined the recent rush abroad, more than half went to further their studies and keep up with the latest academic achievements. According to a survey conducted among some 7, 000 scientific researchers in Shanghai, 82 per cent believed that their experiences abroad were "fruitful". Half said they had made headwayin their work.
Meanwhile, they said they continued to follow with great concern the development of their country's economic reforms. Ascholar with a doctorate from 1 Iew York University had written over 100, 000 words of suggestions to the Chinese central government, the article reported.
Loneliness was found to be the worst enemy of thestudents living away from their families and homeland.
The brain drain from developing to developed countries is an international
phenomenon. In China, backward management and unreasonable distribution systems, together with poor living and working conditions, have led to the departure of many intellectuals.
"After my graduation from university, I have spent four years in my office reading a newspaper with a cup of tea every day I want to go abroad to start a new life, " said a 25-year-old technical worker who was waiting for a visa from the Japanese Consulate.
Some students and scholars had stayed in foreign countries beyond their time limit for one reason or another. For this thoy had been labelled unpatriotic.
But People's Daily called for more trust and understanding of those students.
A scholar studying and working at an American university said he would return to China as soon as his daughter finished secondary school in the US.
A young scholar at a Shanghai research institute said he could not manage to conduct research with a meagre State allocation of 2, 000 yuan a year. In America, he can get $ 24, 000 a yeat' for use in research, so he decided to stay on after getting his degree.
In such cases, most work units back in China dismiss those who fail to return on time. This hurts the feelings of many who are willing to return later, the article said.
At the same time, those who do return face a job problem.
China,s irrational employment and personnel system prevents some from fully using the skills and knowledge they have acquired abroad.
Ai Xiaobai, with a PhD in Physics, wrote to il institutions of higher learning in China. Two of them refused him and the others did not even answer him. Just before deciding to go back to America, he was hired by a Chinese research institute which knew of him.
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