Chinese Scientists Like These Are Why the U.S. Can't Win the Tech Rac
Nansun, a top “chip architect”, former tenured faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, and consultant for an internationally renowned chip design company, resolutely returned to China in 2020, leaving everything behind in the U.S. Over the past four years, he has led a team to develop more than 50 top-tier chips.
The South China Morning Post reported on February 12 that Nansun is part of a wave of Chinese scientists returning to their homeland, previously receiving little media attention. On February 6, Tsinghua University released an article on social media titled “Harvard Returnee, Bringing Chips to Work at Tsinghua”, which brought this top chip expert and his “Patriotic Chip Project” into the public eye.
Nansun entered Tsinghua University in 2002 for his undergraduate studies and graduated in 2006 as the top of his class. He then pursued a Ph.D. at Harvard University, focusing on integrated circuit design. In 2011, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, formed a research team, and later achieved tenure in 2017.
During his decade in the U.S., Nansun achieved remarkable accomplishments in the field of chip design: publishing dozens of papers in top industry journals like the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) and conferences such as the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC); receiving the inaugural “New Frontier Award” from the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society; and serving as a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society and the Solid-State Circuits Society.
Photos of Nansun during his time in the U.S. Tsinghua University’s Weibo account
Additionally, Nansun served as a consultant for well-known American technology and semiconductor companies such as Intel and ADI. He was also on the editorial board of JSSC and TCAS-I and a member of the technical committees for ISSCC, CICC, and ASSCC.
Notably, Nansun has trained 27 Ph.D. students, with 11 now teaching at prestigious universities like Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Tsinghua’s article states that despite having an established team and substantial achievements abroad, Nansun remembered his initial aspiration when studying abroad: “to do something for my own country.” In 2020, he decided to leave his accumulated resources abroad, resign from his tenured position overseas, and teach full-time at Tsinghua University to train China’s chip talent and solve high-end chip technology challenges.
Since returning to China in 2020, Nansun and his team have undertaken numerous major national scientific research projects. Several high-performance circuit design technologies they developed have been successfully implemented in over fifty chip products, replacing imports of similar foreign products in critical fields such as power grids, high-speed rail, industrial control, instrumentation, and electric vehicles, while surpassing foreign products in certain core technical indicators to reach international leadership.
“The global integrated circuit chip industry is growing rapidly, demanding faster innovation and technology transformation for our chips,” Nansun states. He and his team will continue advancing mid-to-high-end chip R&D and manufacturing, “creating more reliable and efficient chips at lower costs to meet the needs for autonomy and control.”
In 2023, Nansun received the “Beijing Youth May Fourth Medal” for his outstanding performance in academia and research. In 2024, for his remarkable contributions to the field of chip design, Nansun was named an IEEE Fellow.
Discussing his reasons for returning to China, Nansun said, “Studying abroad is about learning technology. Go with an open mind to engage with the world’s most advanced teams, and after learning, return the knowledge gained to your motherland.”
Recent photo of Nansun
The South China Morning Post noted that Nansun returned during the U.S. government’s notorious “China Initiative”, enacted by President Trump in November 2018, which persecuted Chinese scientists. The chilling effect persists, and many Chinese researchers in the U.S. continue to face targeting and isolation.
In recent years, the U.S. government has continuously expanded the concept of national security, abusing state power, and ramping up export controls on chips to China. After introducing the “CHIPS Act” in 2022, the Biden administration repeatedly tightened chip export restrictions to China by pressuring allies and suppressing Chinese companies.
However, the reality is that U.S. semiconductor giants like NVIDIA are continuously finding workarounds by customizing chips for the Chinese market. Meanwhile, Chinese technology companies like Huawei are showing a strong recovery trend through independent R&D. Recently, the launch of the DeepSeek AI application by Chinese AI company DeepThink has made Western media declare the “U.S. sanctions strategy is proven ineffective.”
As Western countries continue implementing containment measures against China in key fields such as semiconductors, China’s growing research strength and other factors enhance its appeal to top-tier scientists.
This trend has been confirmed by several analyses. The South China Morning Post cited data showing the number of top scientific experts in China has surpassed that in the U.S. Studies indicate an increase in Chinese top scientists from 2020 to 2024, while those in the U.S. have declined.
Last December, renowned Chinese-American mathematician and Dean of Tsinghua University’s Qiu Zhen Institute, Shing-Tung Yau, stated that Chinese scientists have suffered severe discrimination in the U.S. over the past decade, leaving them “no choice but to leave” to showcase their best work in a supportive research environment.
“Over the past decade, the U.S. government has shown severe discrimination against Chinese scientists, creating serious challenges when applying for research funds from NSF, NIH, and DoD, because there were concerns these scientists might use U.S. funds for China’s benefit.” He also pointed out this brain drain is unfortunate for the U.S. as it weakens its research capabilities.
Editor: Zhongxiaowen
