Comment by AndrewKemendo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AndrewKemendo | Hacker News Reader

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Completely agree that they will further cement their power, but it won't be at the cost of innovation and growth IMO.

China's access to leading technologies and technologists is absolutely unparalleled. The amount of Chinese students that are publishing some of the leading CS and ML research from the best universities and corporations worldwide is staggering when compared to all other nations.

China isn't 'Closing up' they are pushing people to use the services that they control and have insight into. Consider that Tencent, Baidu etc... all have major offices in SV, Seattle, LA etc. Remember the story from yesterday about the Chinese ADTech company giving $3M salaries? That's just growing.

Unless the US, Canada, France, Israel etc... closes the visa program for Chinese workers Chinese companies will continue to be relevant and innovative - and they will likely grow faster with more tailored services because, China has the biggest capabilities to mine user data - more than any other nation by far.

> The amount of Chinese students that are publishing...

That's the thing. These are mostly overseas Chinese working for US/European companies who have no desire to return to China. Talk to any of them, and they're always concerned about the status of their visa and are ecstatic when they become a citizen of a democracy.

> China isn't 'Closing up' they are pushing people to use the services

Tencent and Baidu are used by tiny tiny tiny portions of westerners

> Unless the US, Canada, France, Israel etc... closes the visa program

There's no need, these Chinese students are staying and not returning to China.

By the way, since you think China is doing such a good job of education: remember that Rural households have a per capita income of only 9,892 yuan – about $4 dollars a day. and there's 680 million of these rural households still.

"Surveys by Rozelle's team have found that more than half of eighth graders in poor rural areas in China have IQs below 90, leaving them struggling to keep up with the fast-paced official curriculum"

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/09/one-three-chinese-chi...

Tencent and Baidu are used by tiny tiny tiny portions of westerners

That doesn't matter - they are focused on China and Asia. To think that they can't innovate inside the borders and with a significant number of people inside other companies and abroad is just putting blinders on.

since you think China is doing such a good job of education

Whoa, never said that. Mainland domestic policies for 1.7B (non official number) people are mediocre at best.

> who have no desire to return to China.

My understanding was that increasingly, overseas students are returning to China? (known as "hai gui", sea turtles)

See e.g. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2016-03/18/content_239314...

This is because they can't find jobs abroad and can't even speak a foreign language properly after spending their undergrad years in a Chinese international student bubble.

Quoting China Daily is irrelevant because it's a propaganda mouthpiece of the CCP.

That's not true, more and more students are coming back to China after they finish their education in the West. Not imaginable 20 years ago. Some PhDs are tapping the 1000plan.

> The amount of Chinese students that are publishing some of the leading CS and ML research from the best universities and corporations worldwide

Yes most of them are in the West. Most of them also end up staying in the West too.

> Unless the US, Canada, France, Israel etc... closes the visa program for Chinese workers Chinese companies... Consider that Tencent, Baidu etc... all have major offices in SV, Seattle, LA etc.

Having a physical satellite office where only a few select people have access to free flowing data is a lot more expensive and inefficient compared to being able to just freely communicate online. It's a bottleneck.

Most of them also end up staying in the West too.

Not true anymore - maybe a decade ago but it's not the case today.

Even for the ones that do stay, in my experience with the Machine Learning world they are going to work at Chinese owned or financed companies like the ones I mentioned.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/04/17/chinas-bes...

You're right about the brain drain no longer being in effect. I suspect it's due to the new shortsighted trend with US immigration policy: https://nextshark.com/u-s-made-getting-visa-difficult-people... Not so much with people wanting to go back.

Still I feel it's still more inefficient and expensive compared to just having a free flow of information and data.

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