Chinese tech expats in Europe are on a mission

Over the past 20 years, more than 30,000 employees at European technology companies have moved to China-headquartered firms, according to a study published by Strider Technologies. The findings illustrate the success of Beijing in leveraging talent programs, overseas alumni associations and industry events to extract knowledge and expertise from foreign firms, says the Utah-based outfit that scours open-data sources using AI to produce intelligence reports.

Strider describes the case of Jin Xing, a Chinese national who spent a few years at Imec before getting hired as chief engineer at NXP’s automotive department. Jin worked a decade at the Dutch chipmaker and then moved back to his home country to found Autorock. This automotive-display company is a resounding success: at the 2015 Auto Shanghai exhibition, seven out of 14 new, domestically-produced electric vehicles featured Autorock’s instruments. The company was officially a mere 16 months old at that point.