The importance of "turtle pie" in China has declined

Recently, The Economist reported that the "turtle pie" in China's importance declined, among many reasons. Sometimes the company will recruit Panerai to talent, but found that after studying abroad, not too familiar with China's rapid development of the industry status quo, they firmly believe that the Western concept, can not manage local staff. Returnees are also uneven, the real talent many remain abroad.

Following the Economist's article, look at the status of the returnees in China:

Li Sanqi recalls: "I left China in 1980 with only 3 dollars in my pocket." After the Cultural Revolution, he was the first international student to be allowed to study abroad. Like most successful people, he excelled at the University of Texas (University of Texas) and promoted to a coveted position, creating several technology companies. With the opportunity to help China build world-class multinationals, he returned to China, now the top executive of Huawei, the telecoms giant, who is the chief technical officer of Huawei's operator's network business.

Li Sanqi is a "turtle faction" outstanding representative, Turtle, meaning "returnees", for a long time, China has praised the overseas returned students to introduce advanced technology contributions. In the past, these people have been in the job market and enjoyed generous remuneration, but the prosperity is no longer. Turtle Pie is no longer respected by all walks of life, the pay gap is shrinking, some people can not even find a job. Some people joked that they should now be "seaweed". Looking back on the contribution of the Turtle pie in the past, this is a surprising change.

China's "European and American Alumni Association" has been set up for 100 years, and Wanghuiyao, a member of the European and American Alumni Association, thinks that five times turtles have returned to the country. It first occurred in 19th century, with China's first railroad builders and the first university president. Both the second and third were taken 1949 years ago, and many were political leaders. Many people went to the Soviet Union for further study in the 1950 's, this is the fourth wave.

The five wave originated in 1978, is at present the biggest scale return upsurge. Since that year, about 2.6 million people in China have been studying abroad. In recent years, Chinese students have expanded to 400,000 people a year. Most of the students stayed overseas, but the 1.1 million people who returned to China had already changed China. Wanghuiyao that the first three waves of return prompted a revolutionary change in China, the fourth time China's modernization, the fifth time to promote China's globalization.

The turtle faction helps China's economy to connect with the world, they set up heavyweight technology companies such as Baidu, and many become senior executives of multinational companies in China, helping to link China's global business, politics and popular culture.

So why are their importance dropping? Several studies have shown that the average turtle pie has to wait longer to get to a position that is not high, and that the wage gap with local staff is also relatively small. One reason is the weak job market for fresh graduates. Another factor is that, with the take-off of China's domestic market and the development of E-commerce and other industries, these developments make foreign students who stay abroad for a few years unfamiliar. Rieschel, a venture capital firm, said that 10 years ago investors were investing only in people who had come back from Silicon Valley, and now investors are backing local college-educated entrepreneurs who are more familiar with local consumption patterns, online gaming habits and social media such as microblogs.

With China's booming economy and rapid growth, local managers are beginning to shake off their inferiority complex. Senior executives at China's social media firm Tencent said he would still dig horns from foreign companies, but found it difficult to manage local engineers. A European investment banker points out that the turtle faction often insists on Western concepts such as transparency, meritocracy and ethics, which makes them vulnerable in China's hyper-Darwinian economy, where they are more concerned about what their bosses or clients want and do their best to accomplish their goals.

Even in foreign companies in China, the levy is increasingly critical. Yannig Gourmelon of Roland Berger, a German management consultancy, said the company's profits were slashed, leading to lower pay for gilded turtles.

There is another explanation: many of the newly returned turtles are of low quality. In the past only top students were allowed to study abroad for degrees, and government scholarships were fiercely contested. However, with the increase in income, many qualified students have the ability to spend money to study abroad, the quality of school education is worrying, read out for employment also no effect. In addition, Western economies have gone downhill, and many people have no working experience when they return home.

There are fewer turtles capable, and the top Chinese students remain abroad. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), found that 5 years after graduating, 92% of Chinese students who received a Ph. D. degree from the United States still stayed in the United States, 81% in India, 41% in Korea and 32% in Mexico.

To lure these superstars home, China offers generous subsidies and subsidies. However, are these practices effective? The results seem unpredictable, and despite these policies, returning entrepreneurs face many problems: a rise in labour and land costs, rampant intellectual property theft and serious corruption, with none of the first-rate scientists returning. "If China wants to attract top talent to return, it must radically reform its academic and scientific institutions in order to break the authority of the executive," says David Zweig, a scholar at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. ”

The headache is the fact that in the face of the motherland, overseas Chinese people's inner entanglements. Li Sanqi, who works for Huawei, looks like a typical turtle, with his wife and children still living in the United States. In addition to raising subsidies, China needs to strengthen the rule of law, eradicate corrupt officials, purify the air, purify water resources and ensure food safety. All this has been done, and the turtle pie will surely notice.