This year, Beijing’s Tsinghua University is up two spots to be just outside the top 10.
Peking University and Zhejiang University have also moved up the list, climbing to 25th and 45th respectively.
The rankings are the latest list of the Best Global Universities compiled by American media company US News and World Report, which looks at 2,250 top institutions from 105 countries.
The assessment focuses exclusively on the overall academic research and reputations of the universities, weighing up 13 factors, from publications to citation impact.
This year’s results show just how far Chinese universities have come in a few short years. In 2018, Tsinghua University was 50th and Peking University 68th, the only two in the top 100. Now they are among 15 Chinese universities in the top 100, with Tsinghua leading the pack at 11th.

今年，北京的清華大學排名上升兩位，位列第11名。
北京大學和浙江大學的排名也有所提升，分別升至第25位和第45位。
這些排名來自美國媒體公司《美國新聞與世界報道》最新發(fā)布的“全球最佳大學”榜單，該榜單涵蓋了來自105個國家的2250所頂尖高校。
該評估專注于大學的整體學術研究和聲譽，從出版物到論文引用影響力等13項指標進行權衡。
今年的結果顯示，中國大學在短短幾年里取得了巨大的進步。2018年，清華大學排名第50，北京大學排名第68，是唯二進入前百的中國高校。如今，已有15所中國大學躋身世界前100，清華大學以第11位領跑。

It has been a steady rise for Chinese institutions up these kinds of ladders in recent decades, one built on sustained investment in education, students and recruitment of overseas staff.
That brain gain is growing in momentum, as the administration of US President Donald Trump flip-flops on visas for international students and cuts research funding, deterring more of China’s best and brightest from study and research in the United States.
The decline in Chinese students heading to the US has been particularly stark over the past five years.
In the 2019-20 academic year, China accounted for the largest group of international students in the United States, with 372,532 crossing the Pacific for further studies. By the 2023-24 school year, that number had fallen to 277,398, a decline of more than a quarter over that period.

過去幾十年里，中國高校在這類排名中的穩(wěn)步提升，得益于對教育、學生以及海外人才引進的持續(xù)投入。
隨著美國總統(tǒng)特朗普政府在國際學生簽證政策上反復無常并削減科研經費，這種“人才回流”趨勢愈發(fā)明顯，令更多中國頂尖人才望而卻步，不再赴美留學和科研。
過去五年，中國學生赴美人數的下降尤為明顯。
2019-20學年，中國是美國最大國際學生群體，共有372,532人赴美深造。但到了2023-24學年，這一數字下降到277,398人，五年間減少了四分之一以上。

So much so that India now sends more students to the US than China.
Similarly, almost 20,000 scientists of Chinese descent left the US for other countries between 2010 and 2021, according to a study by Princeton University sociologist Yu xie.
The rate jumped after 2018 when the US government launched the “China Initiative” in what it frxd as an effort to uncover “Chinese economic espionage” threatening US national security.
The China Initiative was launched during Trump’s first term and reportedly involved US Department of Justice investigations of thousands of scientists suspected of hiding Chinese connections. Most cases were quickly dropped due to lack of evidence, and the programme was scrapped in 2022 under Trump’s successor, Joe Biden.
However, the academic chill between China and the US is still apparent at the institutional level. In January, the University of Michigan ended a two-decade partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University over what it said were national security risks.

如今，印度赴美留學生人數已經超過中國。
同樣，根據普林斯頓大學社會學家謝宇的一項研究，2010年至2021年間，約有2萬名華裔科學家離開美國，前往其他國家。
自2018年美國政府啟動“中國行動計劃”后，這一數字激增。該計劃被美國政府包裝成揭露威脅美國國家安全的“中國經濟間諜活動”的行動。
“中國行動計劃”是在特朗普第一任期內啟動的，據報道，美國司法部調查了成千上萬涉嫌隱瞞與中國關系的科學家。但由于缺乏證據，大多數案件很快被撤銷，該項目最終于拜登上任后于2022年被廢止。
然而，中美之間在學術機構層面的寒意依然明顯。今年1月，密歇根大學以所謂“國家安全風險”為由，結束了與上海交通大學長達二十年的合作關系。

The University of California, Berkeley, recently announced it was decoupling from the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute after the US government began investigating millions of undisclosed dollars given to the institute by the Chinese government.
And in September 2024, the Georgia Institute of Technology announced the end of its participation at the China-based Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, also due to national security concerns.
The effect could be lasting.
While the most popular American universities – Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford – continue to dominate the top spots in the US News university rankings, “visa challenges and government scrutiny could deter talented Chinese students and researchers from choosing to study in the US in the future”, according to Rick Carew, adjunct professor of finance and economics at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business in New York.

加利福尼亞大學伯克利分校最近宣布，與清華-伯克利深圳學院解除合作關系，此前美國政府開始調查該學院從中國政府獲得的數百萬未披露資金。
2024年9月，佐治亞理工學院也宣布，出于國家安全考慮，終止參與位于中國的佐治亞理工深圳學院。
這種影響可能是持久的。
盡管哈佛大學、麻省理工學院和斯坦福大學等最受歡迎的美國高校仍然在《美國新聞與世界報道》的大學排名中位居前列，但福特漢姆大學加貝利商學院金融與經濟學兼職教授里克·卡魯表示，“簽證難題和政府審查可能會阻止有才華的中國學生和研究人員未來選擇到美國留學。”

“China-born scholars contribute immensely to academic research in the US. The heightened US-China political tensions have made them a target for scrutiny,” Carew said.
“Generous funding and the opportunity to teach the next generation of top Chinese students in their native language have made offers to return to Chinese universities attractive for some top scholars more interested in conducting research than geopolitics.”
One of the major pull factors for returning to China – the increase in funding – stems from Beijing’s efforts to ramp up domestic innovation and development. China is seeking to move up the industrial value chain and is counting on investment in high technology to help get it there. At the National Science and Technology Conference in the capital last year, Chinese *** set a 2035 goal to develop the country’s science and technology sectors into world-leading research hubs.

“出生在中國的學者為美國的學術研究做出了巨大貢獻。美中之間日益緊張的政治局勢使他們成為審查的對象?！笨敱硎尽?br /> “豐厚的資金以及有機會用母語教授下一代頂尖中國學生，讓那些更專注于科研而非地緣政治的頂級學者，對回國任教感到更有吸引力?！?br /> 促使學者回國的一大因素是資金投入增加，這源于北京加大推動國內創(chuàng)新和發(fā)展的努力。中國正尋求提升產業(yè)價值鏈，并寄望于對高科技領域的投資來實現這一目標。在去年于首都召開的全國科技大會上，中國提出，到2035年要將中國的科技領域發(fā)展成為世界領先的科研中心。

That involves a bigger emphasis on research. According to a report released in March by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, China spent more than US$780 billion on research and development in 2023, reaching 96 per cent of US R&D spending, measured in terms of gross domestic expenditure. That compared with just 72 per cent 10 years earlier.
In 2017, China surpassed the US in terms of research output, and since then has generated an increasing number of cited publications, a sign that Chinese research is attracting more attention from the international research community, according to the Springer Nature 2024 China Impact Report.

這意味著對科研的更大重視。根據經濟合作與發(fā)展組織（OECD）今年三月發(fā)布的一份報告，2023年中國在研發(fā)上的支出超過7800億美元，按國內研發(fā)總支出來算，已達到美國研發(fā)支出的96%。而十年前，這一比例僅為72%。
2017年，中國在科研產出方面超過了美國，自那以后，中國發(fā)表的被引用論文數量不斷增加。根據施普林格·自然2024中國影響力報告，這表明中國的科研越來越受到國際學術界的關注。

xiong Bingqi, dean of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, said conditions for researchers had improved over the past five years, with incentives such as higher salaries, better research funding, and benefits like housing subsidies and healthcare.
“The good scientific research environment has attracted a large number of foreign academic talent to teach in China, and the talent attraction policies are also quite helpful,” xiong said.
Zhejiang University, a cradle of tech start-ups in China, has been on the receiving end of some of the research funding and has attracted notable scientists from the US. That reputation was burnished this year when university engineering graduate Liang Wenfeng made the world sit up with his AI start-up DeepSeek and its cost-effective, open-source and competitive approach to large language models.
Notably, many of the people at DeepSeek were young and educated wholly in China. In an interview with The China Academy, an academic networking hub, Liang said his hiring practice was to pick and nourish fresh young graduates from the very top Chinese universities but with little to no work experience.

北京21世紀教育研究院院長熊丙奇表示，過去五年來，科研人員的工作條件有所改善，包括更高的薪資、更好的科研經費以及住房補貼和醫(yī)療等福利激勵措施。
“良好的科研環(huán)境吸引了大量海外學術人才來中國任教，人才引進政策也非常有幫助，”熊丙奇說。
作為中國科技創(chuàng)業(yè)的搖籃之一，浙江大學獲得了部分科研資金，并吸引了來自美國的知名科學家。今年，這一聲譽進一步提升，該校工科畢業(yè)生梁文鋒憑借其人工智能初創(chuàng)公司DeepSeek及其具有性價比、開源和強大競爭力的大模型方案，讓世界為之矚目。
值得注意的是，DeepSeek的許多員工都是年輕人，并且完全在中國接受教育。在接受學術交流平臺《中國學術》的采訪時，梁文鋒表示，他的招聘原則是從中國頂尖高校挑選并培養(yǎng)剛畢業(yè)、幾乎沒有工作經驗的年輕人。

Apart from DeepSeek, Zhejiang University graduates have been at the forefront of other innovative tech start-ups such as Deep Robotics, known for specialising in robot dogs and pioneering autonomous inspections of electrical substations and dangerous high-voltage environments. Both companies are part of the “Six Little Dragons”, the Hangzhou-based tech firms whose successes have come to embody China’s tech aspirations.
“China produces an estimated 1.4 million engineering graduates each year, providing fresh talent to technology firms like Huawei and BYD competing with Silicon Valley,” Carew said.
“Chinese tech innovation has benefited from a combination of engineering talent, China’s advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Zhejiang and Shenzhen, and government policies supporting investment in hard tech industries.”

除了DeepSeek之外，浙江大學畢業(yè)生還在其他創(chuàng)新科技初創(chuàng)公司中處于前沿，比如專注于機器狗、并開創(chuàng)性地實現對變電站和高壓危險環(huán)境自主巡檢的宇樹科技。這兩家公司都是“六小龍”之一，這些總部位于杭州的科技企業(yè)的成功已經成為中國科技抱負的象征。
卡魯表示：“中國每年大約培養(yǎng)出140萬名工程畢業(yè)生，為像華為、比亞迪這樣與硅谷競爭的科技公司提供了新鮮人才?！?br /> “中國的科技創(chuàng)新受益于工程人才的儲備、浙江和深圳發(fā)達的先進制造業(yè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，以及政府支持硬科技產業(yè)投資的相關政策?！?br />
In addition, US controls on technology exports to China, such as a ban on sales of some advanced chips, introduced in 2022 were supposed to help secure technological leadership, but they ended up costing US companies billions of dollars in market capitalisation while boosting Chinese domestic innovation and self-reliance, according to a 2024 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
But this has not always been the case. China-US relations, arguably one of the world’s most important sets of bilateral ties, boast decades of strategic academic cooperation and competition.
In 1979, the two countries signed the US-China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement. That agreement was renewed late last year after much delay and some changes but the extension signalled a continued willingness to cooperate.
And in May, Beijing’s Tsinghua University opened four new residential colleges aimed at developing talent in science, engineering and AI, with one of them designed specifically for international students. The colleges were part of a global strategy launched in 2021 to boost worldwide competitiveness.

此外，根據紐約聯邦儲備銀行2024年的一份報告，美國對華技術出口的管控措施，比如2022年出臺的部分高端芯片銷售禁令，本意是為了鞏固美國的技術領先地位，但最終卻導致美國公司市值損失數十億美元，同時推動了中國國內的創(chuàng)新和自立。
但情況并非總是如此。中美關系可以說是世界上最重要的雙邊關系之一，幾十年來一直存在著戰(zhàn)略性的學術合作與競爭。
1979年，兩國簽署了《中美科技合作協(xié)定》。該協(xié)定在去年底經過多次拖延和部分修改后得以續(xù)簽，這一延期也表明雙方依然有合作的意愿。
今年5月，北京清華大學新設立了四所新書院，旨在培養(yǎng)科學、工程和人工智能等領域的人才，其中一所專門面向國際學生。這些書院是清華2021年啟動的全球戰(zhàn)略的一部分，旨在提升其全球競爭力。

xiong, from 21st Century Education, said that maintaining a global education push was “a strategic step in building a strong country”.
And university rankings may not be the best way of measuring that success.
xiong said that rating systems could have a negative influence on university operations, leading to more pressure for quantity over quality and more frequent cases of fraudulent research papers.
“Ranking universities by using indicators such as the number of papers published and the number of citations is a simplistic and quantitative approach, but the spiritual qualities and traditions of a university cannot be quantified,” xiong said.
“Talent development is the key to competitiveness. We cannot have first-class scientific research without first-class talent.”

來自21世紀教育研究院的熊丙奇表示，持續(xù)推動全球教育發(fā)展是“建設強國的戰(zhàn)略舉措”。
而大學排名可能不是衡量這種成功的最佳方式。
熊丙奇稱，排名體系可能對大學運營產生負面影響，導致高校更注重數量而非質量，科研論文造假現象也會更頻繁。
熊丙奇表示“用發(fā)表論文數量和被引用次數等指標來排名大學，是一種簡單化、量化的做法，但大學的精神品質和傳統(tǒng)是無法量化的?！?br /> “人才培養(yǎng)是競爭力的關鍵。沒有一流的人才，就沒有一流的科研。”