For young Chinese engineers in tech, the American dream once meant landing a job or starting a company in Silicon Valley. But Mengqiu Wang, who grew up in Hangzhou and graduated from Stanford University, wants to work in China — not the Bay Area.

If his company had started in California, “we probably would have failed,”Wang said.

Wang is part of a group of Chinese nationals known as haigui or sea turtles, who return to the country after gaining knowledge and skills abroad. Last year, 432,500 Chinese who studied abroad returned to China, an increase of 58 percent compared with 2012, according to the country’s Ministry of Education.

中国经济的发展为我们提供了前所未有的机遇。回国后，我觉得更有归属感、幸福感和成就感。国家富强了，个人才会好。年轻人只有把个人的理想、追求与国家的发展、民族的富强紧密结合在一起，人生才更有价值、更有意义。

中国金融市场在快速发展，我是一个中国人，有责任回国为中国金融学科发展贡献力量。中国的国家“千人计划”对人才的支持力度，在全世界范围来说也是一流的。

The boomerang effect is aided by the strength of China’s economy and the promise of its homegrown tech industry, including social networking giant Tencent, e-commerce firm Alibaba and search engine Baidu. Local governments provide incentives to startups that open offices， according to Eric Harwit, professor of Asian studies at the University of Hawaii.

China was once known as a copycat country that took the best services and products abroad andquickly made its own cheap version. That’s still partly true, but the countryis increasingly building products and services that U.S. companies want tocopy.

In China, it’s“very, very good timing to start a company,” Lai said.

Uno de los proyectos más conocidos es el "Plan de mil talentos", puesto en marcha en 2008 con el objetivo de identificar y lograr el regreso de destacados académicos y profesionales.

"Me ofrecieron hasta un trabajo para mi mujer", asegura un ingeniero chino que acaba de terminar un doctorado en una de las mejores universidades de Reino Unido. 

A report led by Student.com forecasts China will overtake the UK’s position as second in the world for international study by 2020, eventually competing with the US for first place.

Professor David Goodman, who leads the university’s China Studies programme, believes students benefit from the exposure to China and its culture, not least because of its growing economy and jobs market.

China has become an increasingly attractive destination for young people looking to study business and economics-related degrees in particular, since the standard of teaching is considered to be high.