this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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A Princeton nuclear physicist. A mechanical engineer who helped NASA explore manufacturing in space. A US National Institutes of Health neurobiologist. Celebrated mathematicians. And over half a dozen AI experts. The list of research talent leaving the US to work in China is glittering – and growing.

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[–] Ziggurat@jlai.lu 33 points 18 hours ago

You mean that when US starts blocking visa and cutting science budget, scientists look for another place?

[–] whiwake@lemmy.cafe 13 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

I mean… it’s not exactly an upgrade.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 27 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (4 children)

I don't know. China is smart enough to realize that a country needs science and scientists should be enabled to do science. There will be censorship in some areas, but there's not a government that's just hostile to science in general and trying to shut it down because of some idiotically regressive dogma, as in the USA. Going to a country that considers it a good thing, and worth investing in, to lead the world in science would be an upgrade.

[–] sadfitzy@ttrpg.network 1 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

There will be censorship in some areas, but there’s not a government that’s just hostile to science in general and trying to shut it down because of some idiotically regressive dogma, as in the USA.

You are actually stupid if you think scientists will have more freedom in China than the US.

[–] frustrated@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

I suppose it really depends on what freedoms you consider important and how much you weigh things. It is true, in china, you cant be openly critical of the regime. FWIW, that is increasingly true in the US.

However, in china, you are free to not be killed by violence. You are free to get affordable healthcare. You are free to get affordable high quality food. You are free to get affordable housing (outside of Beijing and a few other financial centers). You are free to get an affordable high quality education. I dunno. There are tradeoffs. The US is increasingly offering less and less by way of substantive freedoms and is becoming more and more authoritarian.

Also, have you actually been to china? How much of what you know about china is based in outdated information from 30 years ago or might just be straight up propaganda? I have been in the last 10 years and it blew my mind and changed a lot about how viewed the country.

[–] RenLinwood@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

The scientists clearly disagree, and they'd definitely know better than you would

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 17 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

That's right. It's an upgrade by virtue of supplying the material means to do large amounts of science. To provide the education people need, give them labs, tools and materials to work with. All of us would benefit from those scientific discoveries.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Do they get to bypass the "great firewall"?

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think that's necessarily the case, but either way the firewall isn't impregnable if you put your mind to it.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

How do you get through the American firewall that blocks American access to sites the government doesn't like?

[–] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

VPNs. You do know that that's a real thing people of multiple states need to do to access pornographic material and circumvent age restriction tech right?

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 hours ago

Clearly I'm being to subtle...

[–] whiwake@lemmy.cafe -4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Some areas lol. China is the same thing as the US. All government is the same it does not matter where you are, they always turn against their people.

[–] knowone@slrpnk.net 6 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I'm very anti authoritarian and anti statist but this doesn't always happen. You can't look at say Burkina Faso with Thomas Sankara at it's head and Nazi Germany and say they're the same in how the government treated the people

[–] shani66@ani.social 8 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Kinda is. America is on its way to being as authoritarian as China, just with a Christian bent, which is so much worse.

[–] sadfitzy@ttrpg.network -3 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Not really.

China doesn't protect freedom of speech. They don't even allow citizens to own their houses.

[–] RenLinwood@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Anything's possible when you make shit up

[–] shani66@ani.social 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

America doesn't protect freedom of speech already, and we're not even a full year into our fascist takeover

[–] whiwake@lemmy.cafe 7 points 16 hours ago

So much worse than being jailed for talking about democracy? At least in the United States we can all run to a blue state… For now. However, I am curious to see if Trump does anything with his super special banned words.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 8 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

In terms of getting to do science without harassment, it absolutely is. Now I wouldn't go myself because I'm basically allergic to authoritarianism, but if I was another "I just wanna make rockets" guy it'd be a pretty tempting offer.

[–] sadfitzy@ttrpg.network -2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

You are actually stupid if you think scientists will have more freedom in China than the US.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Who the heck said anything about freedom?

[–] whiwake@lemmy.cafe 7 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Ummm… In China, prohibited or heavily restricted areas of research include democracy, human rights, Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, Tiananmen, criticism of the Communist Party, censorship circumvention tools, human reproductive cloning, genetic modification of human embryos for reproduction, stem cell work beyond 14 days of embryo development, unapproved clinical stem cell applications, organ transplantation outside regulated systems, unauthorized cryptography, dual-use or national-security technologies, nuclear technology, unrestricted sharing of genomic or health data, foreign collaboration on sensitive datasets, and archaeological or historical research that challenges official state narratives.

[–] corvalanlara@eviltoast.org 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Have you ever read the list of words you can’t use when applying for grants in the US? Here’s the list: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2025/03/15/these-197-terms-may-trigger-reviews-of-your-nih-nsf-grant-proposals/

Imagine not being able to make research just because it focuses in the wrong topics according to the current government, topics like females, the climate crisis, mental health, racism and inequality.

[–] whiwake@lemmy.cafe 1 points 1 hour ago

What was that list in 2021? 😂