RECRUITMENT OF ASIAN RESEARCHERS SUFFERS IN THE WAKE OF CHINESE ESPIONAGE CHARGES

For decades US graduate schools have recruited top science students from around the world. These students often remain in the US and become internationally renowned scientists. In fact, three US physicists who were born in China have won Nobel Prizes. Now, however, this tradition is threatened by increased restrictions imposed after a congressional report issued last May that China was engaged in stealing nuclear secrets from the US. This causes concern among the American scientific community. "We have to be concerned with Congress tampering with immigration, making it harder for our graduate schools to recruit good students," says Irving Lerch, director of international affairs at the American Physical Society.

Already there appear to be problems for Asian scientists trying to obtain US visas. A recent American Physical Society conference was missing key Chinese scientists who could not attend because of delays in obtaining visas. The State Department says these sorts of delays are not caused by any change in procedure, but by the damage caused to US consulates in China in the wake of the US led NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Difficulty in getting a visa may not be the only problem facing relationships between US and Asian scientists. Along with the charges of espionage has been an inevitable increase in discrimination against both Asian and Asian-American scientists. Chinese scientists in the US report that some of their counterparts in China are reluctant to come to the US. Also, some Asian scientists who are in the US, many of them US citizens, have begun expressing the desire to retire early due to stressful work environments.

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