Many emigrants go to Silicon Valley to find careers in high-tech firms
BEIJING – The many Chinese who emigrated from the mainland in the three decades following China’s opening-up have made great contributions to the world and conferred a variety of benefits on their new homes, according to a recent study on overseas Chinese.
The Blue Book of Overseas Chinese, which was released for the first time on Monday in Beijing, said one third of the founders or senior executives in Silicon Valley, the US technology hub, are of Chinese origin.
According to the book, Silicon Valley, home to many of the largest technology companies in the United States, now has a population of 270,000 Chinese emigrants, a number that is up 60 percent from what it was 10 years ago.
After China’s reform and opening-up in 1978, many students from the Chinese mainland moved to the United States to study at universities. A large number of engineers decided to migrate and work there, adding greatly to the size of the Chinese community in that country, said Wang Zhizhang, a professor at Southwest University and an author of the book.
Unlike their predecessors, the new emigrants tended to be well-educated and to be in possession of much technical knowledge. Many went to work at high-tech companies, financial institutions, governments, cultural industries and universities, the book said.
That group of emigrants, which inherited and promoted traditional Chinese culture, has greatly changed what the natives of their new homes think about China, it added.
The book also discussed the business conditions Chinese emigrants tend to encounter in various countries and regions.
It said more and more Chinese are establishing companies in the information-technology industry.
Initiated by the Overseas Chinese Institute in Huaqiao University, the blue book was the first of its kind to give a general view of Chinese emigrant communities. Among the topics it looked into were emigration trends in China and how overseas Chinese contribute to the prosperity of their homeland.
The book said that when such emigrants return to China, they tend to be most worried about owning real estate. Property ownership, it explains, can often lead to disputes that are difficult to resolve because Chinese laws do not have clear provisions governing property rights of the emigrants.
Speaking at a news conference held for the release of the blue book, Wang Xiaoping, a senior official of the State Council’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, called for the creation of a database that will help officials better understand Chinese emigrants and better meet their needs.
China Daily
