“Haigui” Sea-turtles returning to Chinese shores

From 15th century to 19th century, Chinese nationals living abroad were shunned as a defector or
criminal. For instance, during the Qing dynasty, an individual committing the act of migration was
also portrayed as a rebel, a conspirator or a political criminal. However, Sun Yat-sen’s return from
abroad in 1911 ended thousands of years of dynastic rule and played an instrumental role in the
establishment of the republic seeding the reentry of Chinese nationals living overseas in China.
Thus, it was only during the end of the 19th century that a new paradigm: huaqiao(华侨) : Chinese
sojourner abroad” emerged that transformed the relations between the Chinese overseas and
Chinese authorities, Huaqiao was a useful term to refer to the Chinese living abroad as a whole,
no matter what their occupation was. It also played an ideological and political role since it
suggested that the sojourn abroad was not permanent, that the overseas Chinese would return, thus
demonstrating his loyalty to the homeland in this way. The concept of huaqiao implied a claim of
allegiance to the Empire and later to the Republic. The duty of allegiance was legalised when
China opened consulates and embassies and granted protection to its nationals. Recognition and
protection from the Chinese authorities went together with a call for loyalty.

Huaqiao rehabilitation was a step by step process. The first step was to renew the links with the
wealthiest overseas Chinese and to attract their investments. The second step was to put an end to
overseas Chinese stigmatization. The final step was to upgrade the image of the emigrants by the

means of creating a new paradigm: the xin yimin(新移民/new migrants). First, China launched a

rapprochement policy with wealthy overseas Chinese. Exit and entry administration rules were
relaxed for nationals who had family members abroad and for foreigners with family in China. A
special tax system was also introduced for transfers and donations in foreign currencies. With
regard to investments, huaqiao enjoyed special privileges, such as reserved locations inside the
Special Economic Zones (SEZ), additional tax exemption compared to other foreign investors, tax
deductions when investing in poor areas, as well as tax exemption on profits transferred abroad.
Huaqiao gained more momentum when China adopted the Open Door Policy in 1978, China
liberalized Chinese nationals’ exit policy a.k.a. outbound migration. The policy in its initial phase
was only applied to family reunification and students sponsored by the government. However,
since 1984, self-funded students were allowed to leave China for overseas studies as well opening
up an overseas study boom. But up until the beginning of the 1990s, the student visa was one of
the rare channels for crossing Chinese borders with only a small and selected student group
benefiting from this liberalization.

Cautious not to trigger brain drain scenario for Chinese, Chinese government finally issued new
measures to encourage the return of those who were returning from their overseas education trip.
From the 1990s, the government issued new measures to encourage the return of the most highly
qualified individuals, and promoted a discourse that tends to honour, or even to praise the
repatriated “brains” in China and their involvement in homeland development. Those returnees
formed a specific social group, namely the haigui. Haigui, the term actually started as a pun, as hai

海 means "ocean" and gui 龟 is a homophone of gui 归 meaning "to return." The name was first

used by Ren Hong, a young man returning to China as a graduate of Yale University seven years
after leaving aboard a tea freighter from Guangzhou to the United States. Besides, Haigui is also
a homophone for “sea turtle” which made the word even more popular.

According to the head of the human resources bureau at Zhong Guan Village Enterprise Park (中

村关创业园), the Haigui are defined as those who have studied abroad, either having obtained a

university degree abroad or having spent more than one year abroad under the frame of an
exchange program. In either of these cases, they can obtain a certification from the Chinese
embassy in their country of residence, or from the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of
Personnel in China. The foreign diploma and the official certificate are necessary to enjoy the
preferential policies aimed at haigui.

The initial reason behind people choosing to leave was to aid the state by acquiring advanced skills
or expertise as China began its reform era. Whatever the reason, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that
the number of returning Chinese students grew large enough to become a trend. That was arguably
the golden period for haigui, as returnees typically had experience in economics, sciences or
running large firms—skills China needed at that time. But now more Chinese are pursuing
education overseas because as MIT Sloan School of Management professor Yasheng Huang states,
“The Chinese educational system is terrible at producing workers with innovative skills for
Chinese economy. It produces people who memorize existing facts rather than discovering new
facts; who fish for existing solutions rather than coming up with new ones; who execute orders
rather than inventing new ways of doing things. In other words they do not solve problems for
their employers.” Further, people are getting richer and they have the luxury to go out for
education.”

According to PRC government statistics, only a quarter of the 1.2 million Chinese people who
have gone abroad to study in the past 30 years have returned. More Chinese than ever are returning
though, particularly since 2008 when Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics and the global
financial crisis roiled Western markets. China’s economic growth is drawing some back, while
others are being courted by local businesses seeking top-level talent. These graduates from foreign
universities are highly sought after in Chinese business, and thus can gain employment ahead of
those who have graduated from Chinese universities.

Besides personal aspirations, the leadership itself wants to entice more Chinese expatriates home.
“You are warmly welcome if you return to China,” President Xi Jinping said in 2013. The success
of China’s plan to create world leaders in cutting-edge industries, known as “Made in China 2025”,
will depend on returnees. And indeed they make up nearly half of the “core talents” involved in
developing artificial intelligence in China, according to ChinaHR.com, a recruitment website.
Some Chinese companies are offering big remuneration packages to lure tech talent from America.
Growing numbers of them have not only been educated in America but have also gained crucial
experience there. Officials have also offered returnees incentives: generous allowances to move
back to China, as well as housing, health care and other benefits. Returnees bring back advanced
knowledge and skills in energy, agriculture and other critical industries. They establish new
research fields, helping to restart the process of education, innovation and discovery that had been
disrupted during the decade-long Cultural Revolution. Following the global trends, returnees are
flooding into hi-tech fields, with e-commerce a prime example. Sea turtles have founded leading
technology firms in China.

Besides all the positives, the negative of the Haigui flooding China is returnees compete not only
with each other, but also against the thousands of other workers who stayed in China to sharpen
their skills and experience. Competition for the best jobs is ferocious. Despite it all as China is
shifting to become an innovation-led economy, returnees are finding new ways to stay relevant—
using their cross-cultural ability to help managers understand both foreign and local nuances. In
the coming years, as the recent wave of returnees moves up through the ranks, the numbers at the
very top may well continue to grow. And members of the party elite who have not spent time on
Western campuses will be increasingly likely to have been educated by people who have. As a
matter of fact, the Communist Party’s main training centre for senior officials itself is recruiting
returnees. As long as China continues to seek improvement, there’ll always be a place for sea
turtles carrying fresh ideas from foreign shores.

For a country like Nepal with half of the young brain and muscle power toiling overseas and other
half aspiring to study and work abroad, the case of Haigui and how China has taken initiatives to
lure ‘Core Talents’ Chinese expatriates back in China fueling the growth of home-grown
technological innovation can be an important lesson. The major focus of Nepalese government so
far has primarily been focused on driving the economic growth on remittances from abroad or
either urging returnee migrant workers to invest their earnings in agro business or other
entrepreneurial ventures to make the economy more sustainable. The grim reality here is the
government, neither MoE nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has even maintained records
of students who have returned to Nepal after going abroad for study. The government has neither
developed a policy for retaining the students who have studied abroad nor has it made any efforts
to maintain comprehensive records, let alone giving them initiatives to become employers
themselves or get employment opportunities in Nepal itself. But that being said, the number of
Nepali returnees with foreign academic degrees, skills and experience are seeing potential here
and returning back to contribute in ways they can which means the future of the nation isn’t
necessarily bleak. Our government should take cues from our neighboring nations: China and India
on how to attract and retain the expatriates back in our country which will reinforce the individual
efforts already being taken by some of the returnees in Nepal and also help the expatriates willing
to come back home to contribute to our societies.
 Thank you!!

References:

https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/AV11_ENG.pdf

http://media.economist.com/news/special-report/21742382-growing-numbers-chinese-are-
heading-back-home-after-studying-abroad-what-happens-when

http://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/13619/