Potential spies? Spotlight on Chinese returnees in the job market

SHENZHEN – A prominent Chinese business leader and lawmaker has stirred controversy by saying that her company will not groom foreign-educated talent for fear of spies in their midst.

The comment and ensuing uproar point to the mixed attitudes confronting some Chinese who have returned home after spending time abroad, amid rising geopolitical tensions and growing attention to national security.

Ms Dong Mingzhu, the chairwoman of appliance maker Gree Electric, told a meeting of shareholders on April 22 that the company would “absolutely not use any overseas returnees” when cultivating talent.

“There are spies among overseas returnees, and I don’t know who is and who isn’t,” she added, to laughter and applause.

“Without the ability to distinguish spies, I can only be conservative and choose to train our own talent from local universities,” she said in closed-door remarks that were captured on video and quickly went viral on social media.

The sweeping statements by Ms Dong, an outspoken 70-year-old who has been a member of China’s Parliament for over two decades, are not representative of the approach that most firms in China are likely to take, analysts say.

“The majority of businesses and non-sensitive departments are unlikely to discriminate against overseas returnees,” labour economist Liu Erduo of Renmin University in Beijing told The Straits Times.

But even so, these individuals – known in China as haigui, and who were once prized for their credentials – have seen their cachet fall amid mounting nationalism and sharpening geopolitical tensions, observers note.

Some employers are now also said to be more hesitant about recruiting people who have studied abroad – a view echoed by 25-year-old Gwen, who declined to give her full name for fear of retaliation.

After graduating from a top Australian university with a master’s in business administration in October, she put in at least 200 job applications with Chinese state-owned companies, but hardly heard back from any.

“I most likely got dropped at the resume selection stage because of my overseas master’s degree,” she said. “My sense is that the state-owned companies worry that the longer you spend overseas, the more ‘Westernised’ your thinking would be, and the harder it is for them to manage you.”

Ms Dong’s recent remarks, some say, do not help the situation.

“It’s tough enough for people like me who studied overseas to find good jobs,” said Ms Cindy, 26, who has a master’s in international economics from a US university. “Ms Dong’s comments just made it tougher.” She also declined to give her full name for fear of reprisal.

Associate Professor Alfred Wu of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy noted that Ms Dong’s remarks reflect a broader caution within China towards foreign countries – one that has been exacerbated by an ongoing national security drive.

He cited how the Ministry of State Security, which for years maintained a minimal public presence, has been increasingly active on social media, and is “publishing quite extensively” closed espionage cases through a popular WeChat account set up in July 2023.

“This approach increases public awareness of national security and fosters greater caution in interactions with foreign individuals,” Prof Wu added.

The ministry periodically warns

Chinese studying abroad about foreign spies

, citing real-life examples as a cautionary tale.

In a video uploaded to its WeChat channel in April 2025, for instance, the ministry outlined one case of an overseas returnee who was recruited by a foreign intelligence agency while studying abroad. Upon graduation, the student returned to China, got a job at a government-affiliated research institute at the foreign entity’s instruction, and later passed along classified information and state secrets. He has since been convicted of espionage and sentenced to life in prison.

Cases like this have been held up by some online commentators in defence of Ms Dong’s stance. The businesswoman has not clarified her remarks, but had previously highlighted her company’s exclusive use of local graduates.

In 2023, for example, she was reported by local media to have said that her company’s 13,000 research and development personnel did not include a single overseas returnee, and consisted entirely of local graduates. Back then, she did not cite espionage concerns, instead championing the cause that Chinese schools were capable of developing talent.

The Zhuhai, Guangdong province-based Gree Electric, best known for its air-conditioners, until 2019 had as its largest shareholder a local state-owned company. It is now privately run.

“The envy and admiration previously felt towards overseas returnees have declined,” said Renmin University’s Dr Liu.

Some employers, like state-owned firms, have also become more wary of hiring overseas returnees in recent years, he added.

Citing risk aversion as one possible factor in employers’ decisions, Dr Liu said of those which dealt with sensitive issues: “The less trouble the better... why invite trouble (hiring foreign graduates) if the job can also be done by (local graduates)?”

Another consideration, he added, could be virtue-signalling, or demonstrating to the authorities that these companies are supportive of national security and therefore trustworthy, even as they might offend a more liberal-minded audience.

Ms Dong’s remarks, which come as more Chinese scientists leave the US for China amid increasing rivalry between the great powers, have been criticised by mainstream media outlets. This, as China races to make new breakthroughs in science and technology amid sharper competition with the US.

A commentary published by the Communist Party-owned Beijing News said that there was no need to “stir up antagonism and stick labels on overseas returnees, even if employers have their own considerations for not recruiting them”.

Highlighting that there was now more “high-end overseas talent” returning to China, the piece said that such remarks – a “departure from common sense” – were “especially offensive” and an “affront” to overseas returnees.

Education expert Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, said that China still needs more top talent from overseas. Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) courses in the US and Europe, for instance, have some advantages over what is available in China, he added.

“The US is already making it difficult for Chinese students to study Stem fields as it wants to maintain its advantage in technology and talent,” he noted.

“If overseas returnees get labelled as spies in China (and are thereby shunned), would this not be exactly what the US wants?” he asked rhetorically.