News on China's scientific and technological development.

Blackstone said:

Did you mention to your visiting Chinese colleagues they could trust the items they buy in grocery stores? They could attend whatever church they please, or not. They read and say what suit their fancy. They could publicly criticize Xi Jinging's family for hiding $billions of wealth from the Chinese public. They could use Facebook and Google, or not. They could read about the Tiananmen massacre. In the event they discover or patent something, their IPs are protected. Just a partial list of benefits that are hard to come by in the People's Republic.

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Wondering whether you have been to China lately .. let say in the last 5 years?

China is totally different than what the US media keep telling us. You could do almost anything, but some you couldn't do .. the same things like in Singapore and most Asian countries

I and my fam had a long holiday in China in Nov-Dec last year ... so really fresh in my mind .. people there a lot happier than in the US ... trust me. The rivers also nowhere near as dirty as the media keep telling us. Yang Tze river mostly clean .. cleaner than some rivers in NZ ... hard to believe .. but it is true.

Air quality in Beijing was very bad when I arrived as it was cold and no wind ... in the second day it was windy and the air was clear enough. In other cities, the air quality is good enough ... better than most Asian big cities (i.e Jakarta, KL, Manila, Bangkok, MUmbay, Delhi, etc)

antiterror13 said:

Wondering whether you have been to China lately .. let say in the last 5 years?

China is totally different than what the US media keep telling us. You could do almost anything, but some you couldn't do .. the same things like in Singapore and most Asian countries

I and my fam had a long holiday in China in Nov-Dec last year ... so really fresh in my mind .. people there a lot happier than in the US ... trust me. The rivers also nowhere near as dirty as the media keep telling us. Yang Tze river mostly clean .. cleaner than some rivers in NZ ... hard to believe .. but it is true.

Air quality in Beijing was very bad when I arrived as it was cold and no wind ... in the second day it was windy and the air was clear enough. In other cities, the air quality is good enough ... better than most Asian big cities (i.e Jakarta, KL, Manila, Bangkok, MUmbay, Delhi, etc)

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Bro. Way over his level. You are trying to teach calculus to a dude who needs to take off his shoes to count past 10. Stoney still thinks that in China 2017, all you have to do is mutter under your breathe, "These taxes are a bit high, eh?" while in the comfort of your own home, and dynasty assassins will crash through your window to throw you in a labor camp where you carry coal up a freezing mountain in bare feet for the rest of your life.

Blackstone said:

Did you mention to your visiting Chinese colleagues they could trust the items they buy in grocery stores? They could attend whatever church they please, or not. They read and say what suit their fancy. They could publicly criticize Xi Jinging's family for hiding $billions of wealth from the Chinese public. They could use Facebook and Google, or not. They could read about the Tiananmen massacre. In the event they discover or patent something, their IPs are protected. Just a partial list of benefits that are hard to come by in the People's Republic.

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That would be a pretty unprofessional and condescending thing to say.

If you're trying to retain talent, trotting out "perks" that have nothing to do with what *YOU* can offer, just screams that you don't care about them enough to put up your own resources to compete for their skills.

If any potential employer made that kind of appeal to me, I would not touch them with a 10-foot pole.

antiterror13 said:

Wondering whether you have been to China lately .. let say in the last 5 years?

China is totally different than what the US media keep telling us. You could do almost anything, but some you couldn't do .. the same things like in Singapore and most Asian countries

I and my fam had a long holiday in China in Nov-Dec last year ... so really fresh in my mind .. people there a lot happier than in the US ... trust me. The rivers also nowhere near as dirty as the media keep telling us. Yang Tze river mostly clean .. cleaner than some rivers in NZ ... hard to believe .. but it is true.

Air quality in Beijing was very bad when I arrived as it was cold and no wind ... in the second day it was windy and the air was clear enough. In other cities, the air quality is good enough ... better than most Asian big cities (i.e Jakarta, KL, Manila, Bangkok, MUmbay, Delhi, etc)

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Sadly, I've never seen the Yang Tze or the Yellow River in person, but they and lots of other places in China are on my bucket list to explore once my wife and I retire in a few years. However, I was just in Shanghai this February and will travel there again soon (happy with the 10-year visa instead of the 2-year ones). Agreed air is cleaner now than five or even three years ago, but the local folks tell me there are still more bad days than good; which is in line with my experience. It's possible areas outside industrial or economic zones are cleaner though, but my colleagues tell me their villages inland are starting to build up too, and pollution is everywhere.

As for the "you could do anything" bit, that was more true a few years ago than now. I hear that enough from colleagues and from "lao baixing" (the common folks) like taxi drivers to get the sense the CCP is intruding more into the public's personal lives. The lao baixing take it in stride though, and they support Xi in spite of that because they think he and Wang Qishan are doing great jobs fighting corruption and upending some of the vested interests.

solarz said:

That would be a pretty unprofessional and condescending thing to say.

If you're trying to retain talent, trotting out "perks" that have nothing to do with what *YOU* can offer, just screams that you don't care about them enough to put up your own resources to compete for their skills.

If any potential employer made that kind of appeal to me, I would not touch them with a 10-foot pole.

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None of that refutes my points, because what I said are true.

Blackstone said:

None of that refutes my points, because what I said are true.

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And what exactly was your point?

solarz said:

And what exactly was your point?

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To sum it up, my points are be balanced in your China views. Be evidence-based and say things are good if they're good, and bad if they're bad. Look at things as they really are and not as how one wished.

Blackstone said:

To sum it up, my points are be balanced in your China views. Be evidence-based and say things are good if they're good, and bad if they're bad. Look at things as they really are and not as how one wished.

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And what does that have to do with retaining talent? Why do you feel that this would even be appropriate in a professional setting?

solarz said:

And what does that have to do with retaining talent? Why do you feel that this would even be appropriate in a professional setting?

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Comprehensive national environments greatly affect attracting and retaining talent. It's not just how much more money governments spend on R&D. Braindrain from developing countries to the developed countries will continue until the former make themselves more attractive for local talent to stay and foreign talent to go.

Blackstone said:

Comprehensive national environments greatly affect attracting and retaining talent. It's not just how much more money governments spend on R&D. Braindrain from developing countries to the developed countries will continue until the former make themselves more attractive for local talent to stay and foreign talent to go.

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That's your hypothesis. However, as Vesicles demonstrated, the evidence points otherwise.

In fact, the most common scenario these days is that successful people stay in China to work, while sending their wife and kids abroad to take advantage of the environment and education.