The US-China Tech Wars: China's Immigration Disadvantage

Earlier this year, a Chinese technology executive published an opinion piece arguing that size is China's greatest asset in technology competition with the United States today. His argument was simple: Innovation in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence is partly a function of absolute numbers of scientists and engineers, and, as China continues to expand its domestic talent pipeline, its strength in numbers will soon far exceed that of the United States. Many in Washington seem to agree. The White House's education strategy draws motivation from China's rapidly increasing number of university graduates. Experts lament the United States' dependence on international talent and draw analogies with Sputnik to call for crisis-level educational spending levels similar to those in the post-Sputnik era.