ZHAO Minghao and CHEN Yutong，U.S. Talent Policy Amid Great Power Competition: Adjustment and Implications，Global Review，Vol. 18 No. 4 July/August 2026

ABSTRACT: As the primary driver of scientific and technological innovation, S&T talent has taken on growing strategic importance amid great power competition. This article examines the evolution of U.S. S&T talent policy through two key dimensions: the “exclusionary turn” in talent mobility and the “endogenous reinforcement” of domestic talent cultivation. It argues that current U.S. policy exhibits a complex interplay between “development logic” and “security logic.”

On the one hand, the United States is steering its talent mobility mechanisms toward greater exclusivity by tightening visa and immigration policies, restricting S&T talent flows and research collaboration with China, and leveraging alliance frameworks to reconfigure international talent networks. On the other hand, it is strengthening domestic S&T talent development, enhancing “research security,” and reshaping the research ecosystem to ensure the autonomy and strategic resilience of its talent pipeline. These shifts in U.S. talent policy has exacerbated the contraction of Sino-U.S. academic exchanges, increased the costs of research cooperation, and intensified zero-sum dynamics in technological competition, thereby accelerating the bloc-based fragmentation of international cooperation networks in critical technology sectors. In the coming period, Sino-U.S. S&T relations are likely to be characterized by “bounded openness.” While enhancing its capacity for domestic talent cultivation, China must maintain an open and cooperative stance to strengthen its institutional attractiveness in global S&T competition.

KEYWORDS: China-U.S. technology competition, talent policy, science and technology security, global talent mobility, national security