▲ People’s Power Party’s Representative Choi Su-jin
It has been revealed that China’s “Thousand Talents Plan” has been attempting to indiscriminately recruit researchers at government-funded research institutions in the field of science and technology.
According to data received by Representative Choi Su-jin of the People’s Power Party, who is part of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, from the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) and affiliated institutions, it was confirmed that hundreds of researchers received emails related to the Thousand Talents Plan early last year.
The Thousand Talents Plan is a program by the Chinese government that provides various incentives and privileges to attract highly skilled scientists and technicians from overseas.
Following an issue related to the Thousand Talents Plan targeting domestic university researchers for technology leaks, the National Intelligence Service requested a full investigation from affiliated institutions in January last year. It was found that the Korea Basic Science Institute received 226 emails related to the Thousand Talents Plan, the Korea Institute of Materials Science received 188, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) received 127, and the National Institute of Toxicological Research received 114.
Due to different email systems and privacy concerns, only some institutions were investigated, and it is estimated that the actual scale of emails sent to all affiliated institutions could be larger.
The email subjects included “Invitation for China’s Outstanding Scientist Fund Support” and were sent via domains like 1000fb.com and 1000help.tech, which reference the Thousand Talents Plan.
Most of these emails were automatically blocked through spam-filtering systems, but some researchers at institutions were exposed to the emails, with some even opening them.
Representative Choi noted that after the institutions implemented measures like blocking mail domains, the approach changed to sending emails individually under different names instead of mass emails.
It is known that China is now accessing Korean researchers through programs with new names like the “Foreign Experts Project,” arranging trips to China as part of this strategy.
The National Intelligence Service believes that the Thousand Talents Plan is not merely a talent recruitment program but a strategic national initiative by China to secure critical technologies from abroad.
According to the science and technology community, the Thousand Talents Plan has been evolving to increase contact points and familiarity by having researchers visit China multiple times.
Based on data received by Representative Choi from the NST, it was found that in the last five years, 27 researchers visited China 10 or more times for conferences, with two researchers visiting more than 15 times.
Given the increasingly sophisticated attempts at technology leakage, there is a growing call for Korea to implement extraordinary measures to secure talent in the ongoing technology supremacy war.
A previous survey on KAIST faculty members also showed that early last year, 149 people received recruitment emails related to the Thousand Talents Plan. However, with 2-3 similar emails still being received every month and the current inability to enforce investigations unless reported by individual professors, there is a call for structural countermeasures.
Representative Choi stated, “China’s attempts at technological poaching, even targeting government-funded research institutions, are a clear threat to our technological security. Both the government and research institutions must remain vigilant and overhaul their response systems to prevent key national technologies from leaking abroad.”
Meanwhile, the government plans to introduce a system soon to prevent the outflow of talent.
(Photo provided by Representative Choi Su-jin’s office, Yonhap News)