The Chinese government unveiled a program to woo foreign talent just as the US cracked down on H-1Bs with a $100,000 fee. The move immediately provoked xenophobic backlash. While President Donald Trump makes it harder to hire skilled foreign workers in the US, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is trying to lure them in. On Wednesday, China officially launched a new visa program designed to make it easier for young professionals and people with degrees in science and technology from top universities to study and do business in the country. While many of the details of the K visa program have yet to be announced, Chinese authorities have said that applicants won't be required to obtain an invitation letter from a specific company, meaning the visa isn't tied to individual employers.

The H-1B visa program was intended to bring in specialized talent from abroad, but instead it has become a tool for employers to hire lower-cost labor for ordinary jobs. The result is a distorted job market, where highly skilled workers are being squeezed out of the H-1B visa program by spam applications for ordinary workers who then take entry-level positions that are already in short supply. This misuse of H-1B visas has a negative synergy with growing impact of AI on the job market and is part of a larger problem that urgently needs attention. The impact of this visa-farming problem is particularly acute among young people and recent college graduates, who face a bleak job market despite moderate overall unemployment rates. According to government data, the ratio of unemployment for college grads under 25 to those over 25 has hit an all-time high of more than four to one.

Less than a month before Donald Trump returns to office, two of his most ardent allies have plunged into a fierce online debate over immigration, specifically the government's visa program that allows American companies to hire so-called "highly skilled" foreign workers. The clash started on Monday with Laura Loomer, the far-right social media character known for her virulent racism, condemning Trump's decision to name Sriram Krishnan, a tech investor who was born in India, as a senior adviser on artificial intelligence. Tech leaders, including Elon Musk, weighed in to defend the practice of hiring foreign workers, specifically through the government's H-1B visa program. The debate has since devolved into a relentless string of petty insults--Loomer likened tech billionaires to "termites" at Mar-a-Lago; Musk called Loomer a troll--as well as accusations of censorship on X as retaliation. At a different point, Vivek Ramaswamy chimed in to register his support for hiring foreign workers.

A new work permit introduced by Japan for overseas workers to help alleviate chronic labor shortages in certain industries has made an unexpectedly poor start, with only 3,987 of them obtaining the "specific skills visa" in the first year of the program, or less than 10 percent of the government's target. The weak start has exposed the insufficient preparations for the program launched in April 2019. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic unavoidable, the new system is already at a turning point. There are two ways for foreign workers to obtain the new visa. One is to pass an exam that measures Japanese language proficiency and the skills needed for the industry in which the applicant wants to work. In the other route, for the Type 1 visa for less sophisticated jobs, people who went through technical training in Japan for three years or more can change their visa status to specific skills without taking the exam.

In the coming years, artificial intelligence will dramatically affect every aspect of human life. AI--the technologies that simulate intelligent behavior in machines--will change how we process, understand, and analyze information; it will make some jobs obsolete, transform most others, and create whole new industries; it will change how we teach, grow our food, and treat our sick. The technology will also change how we wage war. For all of these reasons, leadership in AI, more than any other emerging technology, will confer economic, political, and military strength in this century--and that is why it is essential for the United States to get it right. That begins with creating a national strategy for AI--a whole-of-society effort that can create the opportunities, shape the outcome, and prepare for the inevitable challenges for U.S. society that this new technological era will bring.

President Trump signed an executive order on February 11 meant to shore up our competitive position in the international race for AI supremacy, but it is short on concrete steps. As the CEO of an artificial intelligence research institute, I am calling on him to include a special visa program for AI students and experts to help us win this race for the sake of both economic vitality and national security. In 2017, China announced its intent to "become the world's premier artificial intelligence innovation center" by 2030. One of our greatest advantages over China and other nations has been our ability to attract and retain the very best students from around the world. Yet, the Trump administration's increasingly restrictive immigration policies are systematically depriving our universities of some of the world's top talent.

President Donald Trump's recent executive order calling for a sweeping review of the H-1B visa program has raised alarm in STEM-related industries that rely heavily on an international supply of high-skilled labor. Harrison Brody is a PhD student in neuroscience at Yale University and a member of Yale Science Diplomats. Current policy for H-1B visas, which permit highly skilled foreigners to work in the US temporarily, prohibits employers from undercutting wages or favoring foreign workers over Americans. But the president, along with a sizable bipartisan contingent, claims that the program has enabled private employers, especially those in the tech industry, to flood the labor market and provide temporary training for workers who eventually set up shop abroad. These grievances may be legitimate, but the conversation has largely ignored another industry that depends on the H-1B visa program: academic scientific research.

The first week of April is always a frantic time for technology companies. It marks the start of the hyper-competitive period when firms seeking to hire foreign workers can apply for the limited number of H-1B visas, which are awarded to high-skilled applicants in fields such as software development, architecture and academia. But this last week was more frantic than usual after federal agencies signaled they would place increased scrutiny on the visa program and the companies that utilize it. The Department of Homeland Security and its immigration processing branch issued a memo establishing a more rigorous vetting process for computer programmers. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it will conduct more site visits to catch H-1B visa fraud, while the Justice Department warned employers seeking visas to not discriminate against American workers.

Tech leaders found yet another reason to denounce President Trump today after federal immigration officials released seemingly stricter guidelines for the country's high-skilled H-1B worker visa program. The backlash quickly built on social media as claims circulated that the Trump administration was preparing to limit the number of visas for computer programmers. But the threat doesn't seem likely to live up to the hype. Both critics and supporters of the H-1B program say these reports are overblown. In fact, they say, panicking about the putative changes plays right into the president's hands.

China is trying to capitalize on President-elect Donald Trump's hardline immigration stance and vow to clamp down on a foreign worker visa program that has been used to recruit thousands from overseas to Silicon Valley. Leading tech entrepreneurs, including Robin Li, the billionaire CEO of Baidu, China's largest search engine, see Trump's plans as a huge potential opportunity to lure tech talent away from the United States. The country already offers incentives of up to $1 million as signing bonuses for those deemed "outstanding" and generous subsidies for start-ups. Meanwhile, the Washington Post last month reported on comments made by Steve Bannon, who is now the president-elect's chief strategist, during a radio conversation with Trump in Nov. 2015. "When two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think ...," Bannon said, trailing off.