Conducting research in China is harder than it has been in years because of an increased emphasis there on ideology and national security, an ever-widening scope of topics deemed sensitive, decreasing academic freedom and, until they were ended last December, the smothering effect of nearly three years of zero-Covid policies.

"Smothering" is not the word I'd want to use if I were a Yankee criticising China's covid response. Everything there is ironically what has been happening in the USA and one of the main causes of their new brain drain. Why would somebody pay tuition fees, go through their racist immigration process and receive a low wage that doesn't allow for a healthy life or even rent in order to go do study there, only to be a second class citizen?

Once their net migration drops enough they'll be facing a full on population decline. Can't wait.