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SCMP

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest stories about scientists in China this year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.
1. After decades in the US, star Chinese mathematician couple returns home
Mathematician Chen Min has left Purdue University’s maths department to join the Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo as a full-time faculty member, the latest Chinese academic to return home from the US.
2. Maths star Joshua Zahl leaves Canada for China after solving century-old puzzle
China has secured a major academic coup with the recruitment of mathematics luminary Joshua Zahl, recently celebrated for solving the more than 100-year-old three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture.
3. Mathematician Zhong Xiao leaves Finland for China with award-winning work
Award-winning mathematician Professor Zhong Xiao has departed Finland after nearly three decades, bringing his foundational research critical to artificial intelligence back to China.
4. Why did Harvard top mathematician Liu Jun leave the US for China?

The professor’s decision to return to Tsinghua University amid rising tensions and US funding cuts had “nothing to do with Trump”.
5. Top engineer involved in Boeing 787 and A380 design leaves US for China
Zhou Ming, renowned as the mastermind behind key industrial software used in planes such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380, has left his leadership role at US-based global engineering giant Altair to return to China.
6. Prominent computer scientist Chen Jing leaves US to teach in China
Prominent blockchain researcher Chen Jing has left the United States to join Tsinghua University in Beijing as a full-time professor.
7. Biomathematician Hu Yijuan is among Chinese scientists in continuing US exodus

Renowned biomathematician Hu Yijuan has returned to China and joined the prestigious Peking University – her alma mater – after nearly two decades in the United States.


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SCMP Highlights

7 scientists, mathematicians, physicists and experts who moved to China in 2025

(From left) Joshua Zahl, Chen Jing and Zhou Ming. Photo: Handout/Tsinghua University

Liu Jun, one of the world’s leading statisticians and a longtime professor at Harvard University, has returned to China full time, accepting a prestigious chair at Tsinghua University last month. Photo: Handout

Hu Yijuan, who graduated from Peking University in 2005, has left the US to continue her research in biostatistics at her alma mater in China. Photo: Sohu

DeepSeek’s game-changing rise, China’s robot boot camps: 7 AI 2025 breakthroughs

DeepSeek is being touted as China’s secret weapon in the artificial intelligence war with the US. Photo: AFP

Technicians train humanoid robots at a data collection centre run by the robotics company Agibot in Shanghai. Photo: Getty Images

Sex dolls made by WMDoll are on display at its headquarters in Zhongshan, a city in southern Guangdong province. Photo: Coco Feng

EngineAI Robotics’ humanoid T800 is capable of delivering Bruce Lee-style roundhouse kicks with great force. Photo: Handout

From Labubu to blockbuster films, was 2025 the year China’s soft power went mainstream?

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

 Illustration: Henry Wong

Chongqing has become known as China’s “cyberpunk capital”. Photo: Getty Images

Kenyan social media influencers (from left) MC Jessy, Betty Kyallo, Terence Creative and Mulamwah during their visit to China. Photo: Instagram

Tourists pose for photos with a wall painting featuring the hit animated film “Ne Zha 2” in Dongfeng Village in east China’s Shandong Province on March 1, 2025. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

Science

From a world-leading statistician to a mathematics luminary, here are some experts who made the move


From a world-leading statistician to a mathematics luminary, here are some experts who made the move.


7 scientists, mathematicians, physicists and experts who moved to China in 2025

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From a world-leading statistician to a mathematics luminary, here are some experts who made the move

1. After decades in the US, star Chinese mathematician couple returns home

2. Maths star Joshua Zahl leaves Canada for China after solving century-old puzzle

3. Mathematician Zhong Xiao leaves Finland for China with award-winning work

4. Why did Harvard top mathematician Liu Jun leave the US for China?

From a world-leading statistician to a mathematics luminary, here are some experts who made the move