The US leadership in science and technology has greatly benefitted from immigrants from other countries, most notably from China in the recent decades. However, feeling the pressure of potential federal investigation since the 2018 launch of the China Initiative under the Trump administration, Chinese-origin scientists in the US now face higher incentives to leave the US and lower incentives to apply for federal grants. Analyzing data pertaining to institutional affiliations of more than 2.3 million scientific papers, we find a steady increase in the return migration of Chinese-origin scientists from the US back to China. We also conducted a survey of Chinese-origin scientists employed by US universities in tenure or tenure-track positions (n=1300), with results revealing general feelings of fear and anxiety that lead them to consider leaving the US and/or stop applying for federal grants.

翻译：美国在科学和技术方面的领导地位极大地得益于来自其他国家的移民,特别是近几十年来来自中国的移民。 然而,自2018年在特朗普政府下启动中国倡议以来,由于感受到潜在的联邦调查压力,美国华裔科学家现在面临离开美国的更大激励和申请联邦赠款的更少激励。 分析230多万份科学论文的机构附属关系数据,我们发现华裔科学家从美国返回中国的人数稳步增加。 我们还对美国大学在任期或保有权轨道上聘用的华裔科学家进行了调查(n=1300 ), 结果表明他们普遍感到恐惧和焦虑,因此考虑离开美国和(或)停止申请联邦赠款。