There are now more top scientists and tech experts based in China than in the US, the South China Morning Post reports – citing analysis from Shenzhen-based data technology firm Dongbi Data.
According to Dongbi, the number of “high-level science and technology talents” in the US fell from 36,599 to 31,781 between 2020 and 2024. Over the same four years, the number of those talents in China rose at a much faster pace – going from 18,805 to 32,511 individuals.
The study defined such talents as any researcher who had published influential papers in the world’s top journals.
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Dongbi said that China now has 28 percent of the world’s leading experts in scientific fields, while the US has 27 percent. That’s a decrease from 33 percent in 2020 for the US and an increase from 17 percent for China.
According to the Post, the team behind the study sampled more than 40,000 highly cited key papers published between 2020 and 2024, in 129 top international academic journals across a range of disciplines, then extracted information about the authors and collated the data, Last November, the influential journal Nature determined that China was home to 10 out the 20 top science cities in the world – with Beijing and Shanghai in the top two positions. The article noted that China’s rise in competitiveness was “very much aligned to national strategies to bolster the country’s economic self-sufficiency,” with regional cities playing key roles in sectors from electric vehicles to solar energy.
