A small office, a desk and registered a capital of US$300,000 were everything Dr. Chang Zhaohua had five years ago when he started his business in Shanghai after returning from the United States.

Today, Chang's company, Microport Medical (Shanghai), has more than 150 workers and is a star in Shanghai's Zhangjiang High-Tech Park with assets up to 150 million yuan (US$18 million).

"We found home here," said Chang, 39, who had lived in the United States for more than 10 years. "China's rapid economic development offers us the best chances."

Along with an increasing number of overseas-educated Chinese students who returned to China, Chang said China offers better job prospects than the United States and he did not have to face a glass ceiling in the motherland.

The number of "sea turtles," the nickname for returnees to China, is growing rapidly in Shanghai, China's commercial and business hub.

Statistics of the Shanghai Municipal Personnel Department show some 45,000 returnees now work in the city, serving as high-level managers, senior engineers or starting their own businesses.

More than 90 percent of the returnees have gained a master's degrees or doctorate, according to the personnel department.

All 23 national chief scientists in Shanghai are returnees with rich professional knowledge and expertise, and more importantly an international perspective.

Shanghai is planning to provide 10,000 technical and managerial posts for returned students in the next two or three years, according to a "returned talent pooling" program launched in August.

Overall, China still suffers more of a brain drain than a brain gain though.

Only about a quarter of the 600,000 students studying overseas have returned home after graduation during the past two decades, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education.

But more students studying overseas have expressed their desire to go back, and the number of returnees did grow at an annual rate of 40 percent over the last two years, said the ministry.

"It is not a matter of struggle whether you should return, but an opportunity you should grasp," said Lu Hao'an who has just returned from the United States after living there for more than 20 years.

"China has offered us so many rare opportunities, you shouldn't miss out."
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2003)