manqiangrexue
Brigadier
I know a lot of Chinese people, both who chose to stay in the US and those who chose to return to China.The undisputed fact is in fields where China is competitive, the top talent is staying in China. The one's coming to work in the US are either unable to compete in the competitive Chinese market, or are hoping that experience gained in the US (in fields where the US is still a industry leader) will enable to them eventually be more competitive in the Chinese market. Doesn't matter whether these are postgraduate students or not - a PhD by itself means absolutely jack shit.
Heck, if I had the skills / knowledge to be competitive, I'd return to China to work for Huawei. But I don't, while in the US I can easily cruise along at the elite level of my field.
In fields where China is still catching up, it's a good thing for Chinese students/engineers/scientists to spend time in US gaining valuable experience and knowledge. This is why the Trump administration raised such a big fuss of limiting the number of Chinese nationals that can study/work in certain fields in the US. It absolutely does not matter if a large number of these Chinese stay in the US - since the best of them are returning to China with their skills and know-how. The ones that stay were simply not good enough.
Those who returned to China or plan to return to China are generally one of 3 groups:
Group 1 is extremely smart and talented, often in STEM; they want to go back to China for the oppertunities there and I often hear back from them by group Wechat or something where they recruit further talent for their new start-up or something.
Group 2 wants to work in the US for a bit longer to build a stronger resume with better experience before heading back.
Group 3 are total monkey-ass retards who just couldn't survive in the US. Thier rich parents bankrolled them; their English sucks and they did their degree in hotel management and hospitality or something at a stupid people college or got an online degree. They basically spend most of their time at drunken karaoke and trying to pass ESL.
Then, there are those who chose to stay in the US. I can remember none of them answering any different from, "Competition and work are too hard in China. I need to live a relaxed lifestyle in the US."