When the Chinese government announced a new visa to attract young science and technology talent, it advertised the move as another step toward becoming the leading scientific power, one to which people from around the globe would flock.

在宣布推出新签证以吸引青年科技人才时，中国政府将此举宣传为迈向科学强国之路的又一步，称全球人才将因此蜂拥而至。

To many in China, it was a gross mistake.

但在许多中国人眼中，这是个严重的错误。

In the days before and since Oct. 1, when the visa was supposed to come into effect, commenters have accused the government of inviting foreigners to steal jobs from Chinese people, at a time when young people are finding it harder than ever to land work. They have suggested that foreigners are being blindly worshiped, a longstanding national sore point.

在该签证原定生效的10月1日前后数日，网友纷纷指责政府在年轻人就业难度空前加大之际邀请外国人来抢中国人的工作。他们还认为这是崇洋媚外的表现——这一向容易引起国民不满。

Prominent influencers have also stoked nationalism or xenophobia, claiming that China will be overrun by outsiders. After Henry Huiyao Wang, the president of the Center for China and Globalization, a research group in Beijing, praised the new visa, people on social media called him a race traitor, and their posts were shared thousands of times.

知名网红也借机煽动民族主义或排外情绪，声称中国将被外国人占据。北京研究机构全球化智库理事长王辉耀对新签证表示支持后，社交媒体上有人称他为民族叛徒，相关言论被转发数以千次。

Platforms have been especially flooded by racist comments about Indians, after Indian news outlets reported on the Chinese visa as a possible alternative to the highly popular H1-B visa in the United States, which now comes with a $100,000 fee.

此前印度媒体报道称，中国新签证或可成为极受欢迎的美国H1-B签证（目前申请费高达10万美元）的替代选择，此后各平台上针对印度人的种族主义言论激增。

北京一家智库的理事长王辉耀对新签证表示支持后，社交媒体上有人称其为民族叛徒。

The backlash grew so fierce that the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, People’s Daily, published an editorial calling criticisms of the visa “outlandish” and accusing opponents of misleading the public. Hu Xijin, the former editor in chief of Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, defended the policy, saying in a video that he saw fewer foreigners in China than in Japan or South Korea.

反对声浪愈发激烈，中国共产党官方喉舌《人民日报》不得不发表评论文章，称对新签证的批评是“奇谈怪论”，并指责反对者“误导公众”。民族主义小报《环球时报》前总编辑胡锡进也为该政策辩护，他在视频中表示，自己观察到在中国的外国人数量“比日本和韩国还要少”。

“To be honest, it’s not that there are too many foreigners coming to China right now,” he said, “but rather that there aren’t enough.”

他说：“咱们中国现在说实话，外国人不是来得太多了，而是还不够。”

The public outcry suggests that China may still struggle to attract the world’s best and brightest scientists, even as the United States has cut research funding and pushed many prominent scholars to consider leaving.

公众的强烈抗议表明，即便美国正削减科研资金、迫使众多知名学者考虑离开，中国可能仍然难以吸引全球顶尖科技人才。

Anti-foreign sentiment has grown in China in recent years, as the government has warned of hostile overseas powers and urged people to report potential spies. China has historically had minuscule levels of inbound immigration, and many cultural and legal barriers remain for foreigners seeking to remain long-term.

近年来，中国政府频繁警示境外敌对势力风险，并号召民众举报潜在间谍，国内排外情绪随之升温。从历史上看，中国入境移民数量极少，外国人若想长期居留，仍需面对诸多文化与法律障碍。

When the government proposed slightly loosening permanent residency requirements for foreigners in 2020, it eventually retreated in the face of a similar backlash. (China granted fewer than 5,000 permanent residency cards between 2004 and 2014, according to People’s Daily.)

2020年，政府曾提议小幅放宽外国人永久居留条件，但最终在类似的反对声浪中搁置。（据《人民日报》报道，2004年至2014年，中国发放的永久居留证不足5000张。）

Even in defending the policy, the People’s Daily editorial assured readers that the visa would make it easier for young scientists to come to China, but that it “cannot be equated with immigration.”

即便在为政策辩护时，《人民日报》的评论文章仍向读者保证：新签证虽能让青年科学家更易来华，但其性质“岂能直接和移民划等号”。

It is unclear whether the visa would even grant the right to work, as opposed to simply allowing people to conduct business and educational “exchanges,” as state media said after the visa was announced. Eligibility details have not yet been released, even though the launch date has passed. Officials have said only that applicants would need to have obtained a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, math or engineering from a top university.

目前尚不清楚该签证是否赋予工作权——官方媒体在签证宣布后仅称其允许持有者开展商业与教育“交流”。尽管生效日期已过，签证申请资格细则仍未公布，官员仅表示申请人需“从境内外知名高校或科研机构毕业，在科学、技术、工程、数学领域获得学士及以上学位”。

The difficult job market for young people has been a potential flashpoint for years, as China grapples with slowing growth. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has said that ensuring employment is key to preventing social unrest. The latest jobs figures, released in August, show youth unemployment at a new high.

这些年来，中国经济增速放缓，青年就业困境始终是潜伏的社会矛盾点。国家领导人习近平曾指出，保障就业是防范社会动荡的关键。今年8月发布的最新数据显示，青年失业率再创新高。

“Among people from every walk of life, educational background and age group I’ve met, everyone says: Work is hard to find,” a popular manga author who uses the pen name Feng Xi Shen Lei wrote on social media. “Given the talent pool in China, I don’t believe that there’s any position in any field that must be filled by a foreigner.”

笔名“风息神泪”的知名漫画家在社交媒体上写道：“目前我能接触到的所有渠道、所有平台、所有阶层、所有学历、所有年龄段的人群，都在说：工作不好找，或者，工作不好保。我不相信以国内的人才储备，有什么领域的什么职位，非要外国人做不可。”

北京大学，正在做实验的学生。中国的科技专业毕业生在劳动力中所占比例低于许多西方国家。

Commenters also attacked the requirement that applicants need only a bachelor’s degree. Many young Chinese say that they need advanced degrees to find jobs, because of stiff competition.

网民还对申请人仅需学士学位的要求提出质疑。许多中国年轻人表示，由于竞争激烈，他们必须拥有高学历才能找到工作。

In reality, foreigners who enter on K visas may not directly be competing with most of the unemployed young Chinese.

事实上，持K签证入境的外国人或许并不会与大多数中国失业青年直接竞争。

That is in part because of a mismatch between supply and demand in China’s job market. Many recent graduates are struggling to find jobs because the sectors that have historically employed most of them, such as real estate or education, are suffering. But in fields such as advanced manufacturing or artificial intelligence, China needs tens of millions more qualified candidates than it has, according to the Ministry of Education.

部分原因在于中国就业市场存在供需错配：房地产、教育等传统吸纳就业主力行业陷入困境，导致大量应届毕业生求职困难；但据教育部数据，在高端制造、人工智能等领域，中国对专业人才的需求缺口达数千万。

Though China produces the most science and technology graduates in the world by numbers, those graduates make up a smaller proportion of the total work force than in many Western countries.

尽管中国科技类专业毕业生数量居全球首位，但这类人才在总劳动力中的占比仍低于许多西方国家。

Denis Simon, the former executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University and an advocate for more scientific cooperation between the United States and China, said that greater transparency about how the visas will be granted could help ease people’s concerns. But he said Beijing was sending a clear signal that it wanted to bring in more foreign expertise.

昆山杜克大学前常务副校长丹尼斯·西蒙长期倡导中美加强科技合作，他表示，若能提高签证发放流程的透明度，有助于缓解民众担忧。但他也指出，中国政府已释放明确信号——希望引入更多外国专业人才。

“This is part of the longer-term reforms needed to attract high-end talent,” he said.

他说：“这是吸引高端人才所需的长期改革的一部分。”