Over 140,000 Chinese students have come back to China after studying overseas, and many of them have made noticeable achievements, according to Chen Yangjin, deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA).

Chen made the remarks at the ongoing sixth China Fair on East-West Trade and Investment Cooperation being held in Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Statistics show that some 400,000 Chinese have gone abroad to receive education since China adopted the reform and opening policy in the late 1970s. Ninety percent of them have received master's or doctor's degrees.

The SAFEA always attaches great importance to providing favorable work treatment and a comfortable living environment for returned students who choose to build their careers in the motherland, Chen said.

In recent years, the SAFEA has provided opportunities for overseas Chinese students and experts to tour China and make suggestions for China's development.

So far, returned students have established nearly 4,000 enterprises in China, with a total output value exceeding 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion).

(China Daily April 8, 2002)