Education, Talent & Mobility

The Quiet Power of Language For bilingual teens, switching between languages feels instinctive. A thought might begin in one and end in another, carrying shades of meaning that belong to both. What seems like habit is actually skill. In a world where mistranslation can spark conflict, the ability to move between languages has become a quiet form of diplomacy. Across the Pacific, students in Beijing and Boston grow up bridging different systems of thought. A Chinese student in

A New Kind of Ambition Starting a company today means confronting complexity from day one. Young founders now face regulations that determine not only how they operate but also whether they can exist across borders at all. The idea of innovation as freedom has been replaced by innovation as negotiation. In China, the framework for cross-border business has tightened but also matured. The rules to facilitate cross-border data flow  issued earlier this year clarified that routi

Learning Without Limits In classrooms across China and the United States, girls solve equations and write code with the same precision as boys. The gap begins not in ability but in what comes after. By the time students reach university, the divide in science and technology has already taken shape. In the United States, women hold about one-third of STEM jobs , a number that has changed little in ten years. In China, women represent roughly 45 percent of the STEM workforce, b

After the Ban In 2021, China abruptly outlawed for-profit tutoring in core school subjects, shutting down an industry once worth more than 100 billion dollars. Millions of teachers, investors, and families were left in uncertainty as education companies such as TAL Education and New Oriental closed or reinvented themselves overnight. The government explained the policy as a way to reduce student pressure and restore fairness, but it also redefined what kind of innovation was

The Promise That Changed For years, studying abroad symbolized both aspiration and mobility. A student from Beijing could complete an engineering degree in the United States, intern at a major technology firm, and decide whether to stay or return home. That straightforward path is no longer guaranteed. New visa rules, security screenings, and research restrictions have blurred the link between international study and global employment. The shift is not only bureaucratic. It r

A New Border in Technology When Chinese graduates from top American universities finish degrees in artificial intelligence or aerospace, their job options often narrow before they even begin. Security clearance requirements, export controls, and visa limits can block access to entire industries. The issue is not talent but trust. As competition between Washington and Beijing sharpens, technology itself has become a border—one drawn not on maps but in laboratories and hiring o

Two Systems, One Goal Each June, more than thirteen million Chinese students take the Gaokao, the national college entrance exam that can determine their university, career, and social mobility. The numbers reveal its scale: roughly one in 250 test takers gains admission to a top university. Streets are empty, families gather outside testing centers, and news coverage dominates national television. Across the Pacific, nearly two million American students sit for the SAT, a t

A Quiet Migration When the world’s largest artificial intelligence conferences begin in Toronto, London, or San Francisco, one pattern stands out. A striking number of researchers on stage were born and educated in China, yet the institutions listed on their name tags belong to the United States or Europe. This movement reflects a deeper truth about global innovation: talent travels where ideas can grow. China now trains one of the largest groups of AI specialists in the worl

The Flow Each fall, a stream of students lifts off from Beijing and Shanghai and lands in Boston and Los Angeles. They carry more than luggage. They carry the habits of Chinese math and science training into American classrooms that reward experimentation and open debate. The result is a living bridge between two education systems. More than two hundred ninety thousand Chinese students  study in the United States in the most recent count, the largest group by far among intern