“Self-reliance and strength in science and technology”. That was the phrase General Secretary Xi Jinping used six times in his two-hour speech to China’s five-yearly Communist Party congress last October. It wasn’t a new policy: geopolitical rivalry has put research collaborations with the US under strain, Chinese universities have sought to nurture home-grown talent.
But “self-reliance and strength” has also meant strengthening research links with countries other than the US and Europe. As a result, about 26,000 foreign doctoral candidates were enrolled in Chinese universities in 2019 – around 20% of all doctoral registrations. Of these more than 6,000 were citizens of African countries.
China has supported many of these African students with scholarships. But much less well known is how some doctoral candidates struggle to receive their PhD. Even as China moves away from requiring these students to acquire publications in international journals, Chinese universities and supervisors have their own publishing requirements that can delay African scholars from graduating.
