China Quietly Recruits Overseas Chip Talent as US Tightens Curbs

An anonymous reader shares a report: For a decade until 2018, China sought to recruit elite foreign-trained scientists under a lavishly funded program that Washington viewed as a threat to U.S. interests and technological supremacy. Two years after it stopped promoting the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) amid U.S. investigations of scientists, China quietly revived the initiative under a new name and format as part of a broader mission to accelerate its tech proficiency, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter and a Reuters review of over 500 government documents spanning 2019 to 2023. The revamped recruitment drive, reported in detail by Reuters for the first time, offers perks including home-purchase subsidies and typical signing bonuses of 3 to 5 million yuan, or $420,000 to $700,000, the three people told Reuters.

China operates talent programs at various levels of government, targeting a mix of overseas Chinese and foreign experts. The primary replacement for TTP is a program called Qiming overseen by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to national and local policy documents, online recruitment advertisements and a person with direct knowledge of the matter who, as with others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. The race to attract tech talent comes as President Xi Jinping emphasises China's need to achieve self-reliance in semiconductors in the face of U.S. export curbs. Regulations adopted by the U.S. Commerce Department in October restrict U.S. citizens and permanent residents from supporting the development and production of advanced chips in China, among other measures.

Don't poach the Tostito's employees!

[pecosdave]

Gotta have something to eat my guac and salsa with!

Best talent isn't interested in cash

[HBI]

I believe China is doing what they can here, but I don't think it's going to lure too much talent.

They did the best they could in the days before there was direct confrontation with the US, but it's going to be harder now. Holding off the great power conflict for a few more years might have been beneficial, but I suppose the COVID thing and other events kinda forced their hand.

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[larryjoe]

The best talent may also be motivaed by factors other than cash but it seems unlikely as a general rule that they're just not interested in cash.

Very true.

Many people are not motivated by moderate cash. However, life changing cash is a different matter. There are almost no people who would not listen to an offer for life-changing cash. Maybe $500k isn't that much for a good tech guy, but $10 million is something that many more people would think about. Certainly $100 million is something that almost every tech guy will listen very closely to. The point is that the amount of cash (i.e., whether it's life changing or not) is what matters. It's n

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[real_nickname]

Talented people already have a lot of money, enough to retire early and buy at most any normal thing they want(so no jet, private islands or trump tower), for most, it can't be their main motivation (obviously for some people money is an addiction). Random guess, no source.

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[ctilsie242]

It sometimes depends on the cash outlay. I remember around 2010, how people that would never dream of wanting to go visit the Middle East were signing up for IT contracts in Afghanistan or Iraq because $250k/six months was a lot of money, and some people would do that because a few years of that, and they were pretty much set for life, where they could take a far lower paying, but far less stress job and be ahead. Or just spend a few years not doing anything and living from savings. Throw seven digits at

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[Anonymous Coward]

There is also the fact that any job in chip fab is something that is needed anywhere on the globe, and lets face it... China isn't a country that is known for its freedom of speech, fair justice system, or its racial equality, so anyone who is looking for cash isn't going to be exactly flocking to Beijing when they can go to Berlin, Zurich, Tokyo, or even US cities and eke out a good living.

Thousand Talents did make China competitive before they decided to be the school bully and threaten or subvert other n

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[phantomfive]

A lot of the best talent is in Taiwan, and the cultural transition is a lot easier for them than for Americans.

Quietly?

[BetterSense]

If you happen to work in certain niche segments of the industry, especially anything involving advanced materials processing or creation, you've surely got the job offers. Always something like a "fully remote leadership position" at a salary about 150%-200% the going rate, with "required quarterly travel to Asia". And if you are smart, you delete them and walk away. It's not worth becoming another Shane Todd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Shane_Todd

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[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

That is exactly why I turned down a job offer from a company that was right in my skillset. The money would have been great but...

Then the recruiter mentioned the part about REQUIRED amounts of travel to a certain Asian country I remained to the end.

When asked what I thought about the job I told their US recruiter, "Thank you for considering me, but I need time to think about this offer."

If you speak "job hiring code", my reply was a polite way of saying, "Don't call me. I'll call you." In other words, it m

secret

[nicubunu]

Secret hires for their secret factories [slashdot.org] /s

xyz abc

[sirfer_99]

China quietly sucks balls.