“There have been two major changes in demand for studying in China,” said Kim Hun-hyi, who runs a study abroad agency specializing in Chinese universities and has 20 years of experience in the industry. “First, interest has shifted noticeably from humanities programs to science and engineering. Second, we are now seeing more top-performing science students come to us.”

According to a 2024 report by Japan’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, Chinese researchers accounted for nearly a third of the world’s top 10 percent of citations over the previous three years, at 31.8 percent. The United States fell to second place at around 17 percent, while Korea ranked ninth with 2.1 percent.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Critical Technology Tracker reached a similar conclusion. It found that China produced the largest share of top 10 percent cited research in 66 of 74 critical technologies, or 89 percent.