No deficit to Chinese workers. The CP actually harms the CCP by causing brain drain.

The Commission soundly rejected an approach favored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) to prevent Chinese-born researchers from studying in science and technology fields in the United States, arguing such a policy would be a huge benefit to the Chinese Communist Party.

“Immigration policy can also slow China’s progress,” according to the report. “China’s government takes the threat of brain drain seriously, noting that the United States’ ability to attract and retain China’s talent is an obstacle to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ambitions. Increasing China’s brain drain will create a dilemma for the CCP—which will be forced to choose between losing even more human capital, further slowing their economic growth and threatening their advancement in AI, or denying Chinese nationals opportunities to study and work in the United States.”

In a hearing, Eric Schmidt noted many promising researchers in AI in the United States were born in China. “We looked at the question of how important are Chinese researchers for the AI effort, in our report, and it turns out the Chinese researchers are the number one authors on the key papers,” said Schmidt at a recent Congressional hearing. “If you were to get rid of all of them . . . you will, in fact, hurt America’s AI leadership.” In a report, Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology also pointed out the importance of Chinese-born researchers in American AI.

If Sen. Chuck Schumer follows through on a bill directed at China to increase U.S. efforts in technology, as reported by Reuters, it is reasonable to expect amendments from Sen. Cotton or others to restrict international students from China. It appears Sen. Cotton’s definition of “sensitive” fields includes anything in STEM an international student would be interested in studying in America, arguing the U.S. could “continue to permit Chinese nationals to study non-STEM subjects, such as the humanities.”

The commission addresses technology transfer concerns but warns restrictions on immigration or international students are the wrong approach and would be counterproductive. “While immigration benefits the United States, policymakers must also bear in mind the threat of unwanted technology transfer,” according to the report. “However, restricting immigration is far too blunt a tool to solve this problem. Restrictions harm U.S. innovation and economic growth and only help our competitors by enabling their human capital to grow. They also incentivize U.S. technology companies to move to where talent resides, whether right across our borders or overseas. Technology transfer will only get worse if significant components of the U.S. technology sector move their research and development to China or other countries that are more vulnerable than the United States to technology transfer efforts. A more effective strategic approach would pair actions to improve the United States’ ability to attract top global talent with targeted efforts to combat technology transfer vectors.”

Policy choices made today will reverberate in the coming years. “The leading indexes that measure progress in AI development generally place the United States ahead of China,” according to the commission. “However, the gap is closing quickly. China stands a reasonable chance of overtaking the United States as the leading center of AI innovation in the coming decade.”

America’s leading thinkers on technology, innovation and national security have told policymakers in a final report on AI that making U.S. policies more open to high-skilled immigrants and international students is essential to the nation’s future. Will Congress listen?