For Midea, the increasing need for PhD graduates from overseas is derived from the group's adjustment in its main strategy, which focuses on a forward-looking vision to secure leading technological ability for the future, said Liu.

"That requires future-oriented technological R&D capabilities, and thus has led to our change in need for talent," Liu said.

The Shanghai Institute of Material Medical at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which conducts R&D into new drugs, started overseas recruitment in 2018. In the following year, more than 10 Chinese with PhD degrees and outstanding work experience overseas joined the institute as principal investigators.

"Over the past years, we've continued to escalate our scale to recruit returnees from overseas. It has also come as a result of China's development in the pharmaceutical field," said Piao Song, head of recruitment at the institute.

"While Shanghai is gathering pace to build itself into a science and technology innovation center, talent at all levels are welcome. We offer young researchers job positions as principal investigators, which means they can work on projects according to their own ideas, and this is very different from following the boss at a lab overseas," she said.

Industry insiders have noted that PhD graduates from domestic universities are competitive as well. They possess some other advantages.

"For example, they may have profound networking with local academic and industrial circles, and have more practical experience of working on domestic projects," said Wang.

Jasmine Jiang, cofounder of Zhike, which provides career counseling for job seekers, said, "They may have a better understanding of the domestic innovation system, so that they may have more chances to push their innovative technologies into industrialization."

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