But China's GDP was $1T in 1999, and was $9T in 2013. I confess near-absolute ignorance but the job prospects for advanced degrees in China probably have gotten at least a little better in that time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_GDP_of_the_People's...
In 1999, if you hold a Phd degree from US, it is easy to find a faculty position in China. However, Even you hold a PhD degree from Top Univ in US today, you can hardly find a faculty position in China. You have to do postdoc to publish more papers in top journal.
Notwithstanding all that moral panic about China and India, it's hard to fathom how desperately poor these countries were throughout the twentieth century in the first place --and how in many ways they still are.