The large language model released by the Chinese AI company DeepSeek in early 2025 sent shock waves through the global AI industry. The development of a high-performance generative AI model by a Chinese company, despite continuing U.S. restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors to China, underscored once again China’s growing capabilities in AI development.

One factor underpinning the rise of Chinese AI technology is the sustained development of its research and development (R&D) infrastructure and the cultivation of talent over many years. Since explicitly positioning AI as a national strategy in 2017, the Chinese government has systematically pursued investment in basic research, the creation of AI-related schools and departments, industry–university collaboration, and the development of young talent. In recent years, it has further strengthened the foundations for ‘domestic talent development,’ meaning the cultivation of highly skilled AI professionals within China, by incorporating AI education across primary and secondary schools, universities, and vocational education.

The scope of these efforts extends beyond developing talent at home. At the BRICS summit on September 13, 2026, President Xi Jinping proposed the Open Source and Inclusive AI Initiative, announcing that China would take the lead in establishing a BRICS AI open-source platform, promote cooperation in the development and application of large language models, and provide specialized AI training. He also proposed the Science and Technology Talent Development Initiative, setting out plans for BRICS countries to train engineers jointly and facilitate exchanges among young science and technology professionals. While continuing to strengthen its domestic technological and talent base, China’s AI strategy is expanding to encompass international technological cooperation, talent development, and exchanges centered on open source.

Against this background, this commentary reviews the R&D and talent development policies that have supported advances in Chinese AI technology. It then examines China’s current AI talent strategy from two perspectives: the strengthening of its talent development infrastructure at home, centered on ‘domestic talent development,’ and its recruitment of talent globally.

1. China’s Strategies for AI Research and Development and Talent Development

China’s AI strategy began in earnest with the State Council’s release of the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan [1] in July 2017. AI had originally been classified as a ‘disruptive technology contributing to the industrial revolution’ under the section on ‘enhancing the international competitiveness of industrial technologies’ in the 13th Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Innovation. It was subsequently elevated to a national strategy on the understanding that ‘AI development must be led at the national level if China is to effectively safeguard its national security and secure an advantage in international competition.’

The plan’s main provisions are summarized in the table below. Setting out a strategy through 2030, the document calls for the creation of a world-class center for AI science and technology innovation and talent development by that year.

Table 7-10. Overview of the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan[2]

Following the plan’s release, the relevant ministries also issued specific action plans.

In December 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Chinese counterpart of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, released the Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting Development of a New Generation Artificial Intelligence Industry (2018–2020). It sought to industrialize and apply AI technologies and upgrade manufacturing through four pillars: (1) developing AI-enabled products such as autonomous vehicles, service robots, drones, medical imaging diagnostic systems, speech and translation systems, and smart home appliances; (2) strengthening core components such as semiconductor chips and development platforms; (3) integrating AI deeply into manufacturing to advance smart manufacturing; and (4) building supporting systems for data resources, standards, intellectual property, and cybersecurity.[3] With respect to talent development, the plan, based on the Guidelines for Manufacturing Talent Development Planning (jointly issued in December 2016 by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and MIIT), referred to accelerating talent development by promoting industry–university collaboration through major projects, supporting the creation of AI-related schools and departments in higher education institutions, and encouraging vocational schools to train skilled personnel urgently needed for industrial development.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and Technology launched a major New Generation Artificial Intelligence project under the National Key R&D Program, one of China’s competitive research funding schemes, investing in research on basic theory and common technologies. In November 2017, it also launched the National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Open Innovation Platforms, designating four companies as platform operators: Baidu for autonomous driving through its Apollo project; Alibaba Cloud for urban AI infrastructure through City Brain; Tencent for online medical-imaging diagnostic services; and iFLYTEK for speech recognition.[4] From 2019 onward, National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Development Pilot Zones and National Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Application Pilot Zones were also designated in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and other cities, with the aim of promoting AI demonstration projects and industrialization at the provincial and municipal levels.

To develop talent in AI, the Ministry of Education issued the AI Innovation Action Plan for Higher Education Institutions in 2018.[5] The plan established three stages of objectives for developing AI talent and strengthening research capabilities:

●　By 2020: Substantially complete the optimized configuration of higher education institutions’ science and technology innovation systems and academic disciplines to support new-generation AI development. Universities are to achieve new breakthroughs in research on the basic theory and core technologies of new-generation AI.

●　By 2025: Significantly improve higher education institutions’ science and technology innovation capabilities and the quality of talent development in new-generation AI. Generate numerous original innovations originating entirely in China with international influence, and bring selected theoretical research, innovative technologies, and application models up to the world’s advanced level.

●　By 2030: Make higher education institutions central to establishing a major global AI innovation center. They are to become a hub for talent that drives new-generation AI development, providing the scientific and technological support and human resources needed for China to join the leading ranks of innovative countries.

The plan also encouraged the establishment of AI schools within university computer science and engineering faculties, as well as interdisciplinary ‘AI + X’ schools devoted to research and applications linking AI with education, manufacturing, healthcare, urban management, finance, the judicial system, national defense, and all other fields. It further set targets of producing 50 world-class textbooks for undergraduate and graduate students and launching 50 open online AI courses by 2020.

The plan also called for introducing general AI education in primary and secondary schools, thereby strengthening AI education at every level. In 2024, the Ministry of Education issued a notice on strengthening AI education in primary and secondary schools, encouraging collaboration among industry, academia, and research institutions. Beijing has also introduced eight hours of AI instruction annually in primary and secondary schools, beginning in the fall semester of 2025.[6]

In April 2026, this framework for developing AI talent, from primary and secondary schools through higher education, was systematically updated through the ‘AI Plus Education’ Action Plan (Jiao Ke Xin [2026] No. 1), jointly issued by the Ministry of Education, the National Development and Reform Commission, MIIT, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Data Administration.[7] A successor to the 2018 AI Innovation Action Plan for Higher Education Institutions, it aims to achieve deep integration of AI and education by 2030. It establishes a continuous system for talent development across all educational levels through four stages: (1) comprehensive provision of general AI education in primary and secondary schools; (2) making AI a compulsory component of universities’ general foundational curriculum and creating interdisciplinary programs; (3) cluster-based training of highly skilled ‘AI Plus’ personnel in vocational education; and (4) improving AI literacy across society.

Local governments have also introduced their own policies to strengthen AI talent development.

Beijing, for example, introduced China’s first policy specifically dedicated to AI talent and established Beijing Zhongguancun Academy, focusing on the development of outstanding AI professionals aged 35 and under through an innovative model.[8]

In Shanghai, Pudong New Area announced ten measures to support AI talent development. They include the Pudong International Talent Station, which offers high-level AI professionals and promising young talent seeking to establish businesses in the district free accommodation in talent apartments for up to 14 days and free startup workspace for one year. Another measure, the Global Prestigious Universities Talent Express, uses joint recruitment fairs at world-class universities and a cloud-based recruitment platform to match AI companies with outstanding graduates and provide internships and practical training opportunities. In Zhangjiang Science City, the required period for AI professionals to obtain household registration, or hukou, which enables permanent settlement, has been shortened to three years. Highly skilled foreign AI professionals also receive assistance in obtaining R visas valid for up to ten years. In addition, high-level and young AI professionals are eligible for monthly housing subsidies of RMB 1,000 to RMB 3,000.[9]。

In Shenzhen, an AI education alliance has been formed, and eight higher education institutions have established AI-related schools and departments. These include the School of Artificial Intelligence at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and the Future Technology School jointly developed by Shenzhen Technology University and Huawei.[10]。

Private AI companies and industry also play an important role in talent development. The BAT companies, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, in particular, draw on their own R&D capabilities and resources to develop university partnerships. Baidu, for example, has worked with more than 200 higher education institutions across China, including Fudan University and Wuhan University, to develop joint curricula on deep learning and AI. It has also provided specialized AI training to more than 1,000 faculty members selected from over 400 universities, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, and Harbin Institute of Technology.[11]。

As a result of these efforts, more than 400 universities had established AI schools or departments by March 2023, and China ranked second globally in the size of its AI talent pool. At the end of 2022, China accounted for 4,227 of the world’s 27,255 AI companies, or 16 percent. AI clusters had emerged in the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, and the Pearl River Delta. Open AI platforms developed by the BAT companies, Huawei, JD.com, and iFLYTEK also laid the foundations for industrial development.[12]。

China’s ability to produce highly skilled AI talent domestically appears attributable to the combination of four elements: medium- and long-term strategic planning; higher education reform through the creation of AI schools and departments and the renewal of curricula; locally designed incentive measures; and collaboration between industry and educational institutions.

This ‘domestic talent development’ approach was reaffirmed in the State Council’s Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the ‘AI Plus’ Initiative, published in August 2025. The document calls for ‘promoting AI education at all educational levels and general AI education across society … further strengthening the development of high-caliber talent and establishing new models for cultivating leading talent at an exceptional pace.’[13] The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), approved in March 2026, likewise identifies AI, alongside quantum science and technology, biotechnology, and others, as a frontier science and technology field in which breakthroughs are to be pursued. It explicitly calls for ‘establishing, at an exceptional pace, urgently needed disciplines and majors in emerging fields such as AI and integrated circuits.’ This policy direction is therefore expected to continue and strengthen over the next five years.[14]。

2. Chinese Talent Policies That May Help Explain Trends in Chinese Visitors to the United States and Student Visa Issuance

The number of visitors from China to the United States rose sharply between 2009 and 2017, peaked in 2017, and subsequently declined. Since 2016, leaving aside enrollment at elite institutions, student visa issuance has also declined overall. This section examines Chinese policies that may help explain these trends.

Since the launch of reform and opening up, China has encouraged overseas study under the basic policy of ‘supporting study abroad, encouraging return to China, and guaranteeing the freedom to come and go’ (zhichi liuxue, guli huiguo, laiqu ziyou).

In 2003, China adopted a national strategy to build a strong country through talent. It introduced a systematic approach with two complementary components: attracting high-level talent from overseas through initiatives such as the Thousand Talents Plan, and developing domestic talent through initiatives such as the Ten Thousand Talents Plan.

In line with this strategy, the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010–2020), issued in 2010, called for reforming the government-funded overseas study system, selecting outstanding students through open nationwide competition, and sending them to leading universities and research institutions overseas.[15] For self-funded overseas study, it provided for expanded incentive grants and financial assistance for outstanding students.

These measures increased the number of places available for overseas study through government scholarships and introduced incentives for self-funded study. In particular, government-funded overseas study programs administered by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) were expanded, enabling many Chinese graduate students and researchers to study abroad, including in the United States, with state funding. Another likely factor was the growth of China’s affluent population as reform and opening up accelerated from 1992 onward and China became an economic power, overtaking Japan in 2010 to become the world’s second-largest economy by GDP.

The policy of encouraging overseas study and subsequent return to China with the knowledge acquired proved effective, producing China’s largest wave of returning overseas students (guiguo chao). According to statistics, by the end of 2016, the cumulative number of people returning to China after overseas study had reached 2,651,100. The proportion of those completing their overseas studies who chose to return rose from 72.38 percent in 2012 to 82.23 percent in 2016.[16] To help returning talent settle in China, ministries introduced a range of coordinated measures to address difficulties in accessing preferential policies, cumbersome household registration and children’s school enrollment procedures, problems opening bank accounts or obtaining financing, difficulties making use of intellectual property, and policy restrictions. These measures included easing restrictions on obtaining hukou, supporting school enrollment for returnees’ children, and facilitating financing for business startups.

China’s policies encouraging overseas study made it the largest source of international students in the United States for roughly a decade. In the 2018–2019 academic year, 370,000 Chinese students studied in the United States, accounting for one-third of all international students there.

Since 2016, however, the number of student visas issued to Chinese nationals by the United States has declined. An increase in refusal rates may, of course, be a factor, but the number of applications itself also appears to have fallen.

Stricter U.S. visa screening may have made obtaining a visa more difficult for Chinese students. At the same time, efforts to manage risk by expanding domestic education and diversifying exchanges toward other countries may also have contributed to this trend.

Under his strategy to build a strong country through talent in the new era, Xi Jinping has set out the following approach to sending talent abroad and developing human resources.[17]。

The approach emphasizes ‘domestic talent development,’ including strengthening the cultivation of innovative talent and placing the Double First-Class initiative, which seeks to build world-class universities and disciplines, at the center of training basic research talent. The initiative covers universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University and aims to make China a leading power in higher education by the middle of the twenty-first century. At the same time, the approach combines the ‘recruitment of overseas talent’ with the ‘dispatch of Chinese talent abroad,’ using diverse means to open new avenues for overseas training, diversify development channels, and expand the talent reserve. In other words, while building on domestic talent development and continuing to send Chinese talent abroad and recruit foreign talent, China seeks to diversify its methods of talent development and identify new channels. One underlying consideration is likely that developing highly skilled talent at home can reduce excessive reliance on overseas study, while opening new training channels can reduce dependence on any single country.

Even before this policy was articulated, China had been strengthening educational cooperation with Europe and countries along the Belt and Road since the 2010s.

By 2016, China had signed agreements on the mutual recognition of higher education qualifications and degrees with 19 EU member states, including Germany, France, Hungary, Portugal, and Italy. At the end of 2015, a total of 303,451 Chinese students were studying in EU countries, accounting for 24 percent of Chinese students abroad. In 2015 alone, 123,018 students reportedly went to study in EU countries, an increase of 29 percent from the previous year and 23 percent of all Chinese students going abroad that year.[18] Although trends before and after these years require further examination, the figures indicate that the number studying in the EU grew dramatically even within the single year from 2014 to 2015.

In recent years, European countries have also actively pursued policies to attract international students, and the share of Chinese students, including researchers, is reportedly increasing. According to Eurostat statistics, the number of Chinese researchers in Germany has doubled over the past decade and, as of 2019, stood at 37,000. A separate survey found that 20 percent of Chinese students choosing an overseas study destination selected the United Kingdom, exceeding the 17 percent who chose the United States. Applications to British universities for fall 2019 rose by 23.5 percent from the previous year, reaching a record high. Chinese students reportedly accounted for one-third of international students in the United Kingdom in 2018.[19]。

As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has also strengthened education and talent exchanges with participating countries. In August 2016, the Ministry of Education released the Education Action Plan for the Belt and Road Initiative, placing the Silk Road Study Abroad Promotion Plan first among four implementation plans. It envisaged providing Chinese government scholarships to 10,000 students from Belt and Road countries annually over the following five years to encourage study in China, while sending 2,500 Chinese students annually to those countries with government funding over the following three years.[20]。

Statistics for 2017, the year after this plan was introduced, show that 66,100 Chinese students studied in Belt and Road countries, an increase of 15.7 percent from the previous year, exceeding the overall growth rate of 11.7 percent. Of these students, 3,679 were government-funded and were sent to 37 Belt and Road countries.[21] The total number of Chinese students going abroad that year was reported as 608,400, meaning that slightly more than one-tenth chose Belt and Road countries as their destination.

Taken together, these developments suggest that the decline in Chinese visa applications to the United States since 2016 reflects stricter U.S. screening, alongside the subsequent diversification of overseas study destinations, particularly toward Europe and Asia. It may also reflect China’s efforts to put in place systems that make high-quality education and research environments available within China without the need to study abroad, as well as its ongoing construction of a world-class talent development infrastructure at home.

More recently, this strategy is expanding beyond ‘domestic talent development’ and the ‘dispatch’ of Chinese talent abroad to encompass the ‘admission’ of foreign talent. An emblematic development is the introduction of the K visa on October 1, 2025. This new visa is intended for young foreign science and technology professionals. Compared with existing visa categories, it offers more favorable arrangements concerning the number of entries, visa validity, and permitted length of stay, and does not require an employer or inviting organization in China.[22] The Chinese government has positioned its introduction as part of the strategy to build a strong country through talent in the new era, clearly signaling its intention to promote the admission of young science and technology professionals from overseas and international talent exchanges.

Interestingly, in September 2025, almost concurrently with the introduction of the K visa, the United States announced a measure requiring a payment of USD 100,000 for certain new H-1B petitions. Implementation was subsequently enjoined by a court, and litigation remains ongoing as of September 2026, making a simple comparison of the two countries’ systems inappropriate. Nevertheless, as international competition for highly skilled foreign talent intensifies, it is noteworthy that China is strengthening domestic talent development while also building institutions to attract foreign talent more actively. Viewed in this broader context, China’s talent strategy today can be understood as moving toward a combination of diversified overseas placements and recruitment from abroad, underpinned by ‘domestic talent development.’