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In China, a new commitment to scientific research seems to be paying off. Chinese scientists now produce more scientific publications than American researchers do. The global ratings of Chinese universities are on the rise, and China has also been recruiting scientists from around the world. NPR's Joe Palca traveled to China to meet some of them.

JOE PALCA, BYLINE 1: You enter Tianjin University from the busy Weijin Road through an impressive stone gate that leads to a quad 2 with rectangular ponds in the middle. The campus has a familiar urban feel. It's largely laid out on a rectangular grid 3 with some dowdy 4 office buildings and some snazzier showpiece structures. Jay Siegel's office is in one of the dowdier 5 buildings.

JAY SIEGEL: Tianjin University is the oldest of the modern universities.

PALCA: It was founded in 1895. Siegel says before that, universities in China existed primarily to train people for positions in government. Tianjin added a focus on science and engineering. Five years ago, Siegel became dean of the School of Pharmaceutical 6 Science at Tianjin University. He says the university president recruited him to build an undergraduate program that would attract students from all over, not just China. Siegel says the students in the program are taught entirely 7 in English.

SIEGEL: They get a bachelor's degree that is every bit recognized around the world. You know, our graduates go and do master's and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard, at Princeton, at any of the universities around the world.

PALCA: And Siegel says there's one factor he expects will make getting a pharmaceutical science degree at Tianjin particularly attractive - the Chinese government plans to offer scholarships to cover the cost for students who enroll 8.

SIEGEL: They'd walk out debt free.

PALCA: Siegel says this is all part of China's efforts to attract scientists from around the world.

SIEGEL: We've hired from Brazil, from Mexico, from the United States. We have people from Germany, from the U.K., from Korea, from all over.

PALCA: One of these hires is chemist Mark Olson. We chatted next to a small fountain outside his building on the Tianjin campus.

MARK OLSON: I'm actually born and raised in the south of Texas in Corpus Christi. I come from a Hispanic family.

PALCA: Olson had a faculty 9 job at Texas A&M, but he was ready for a new challenge. He says the move has been positive from a research standpoint, but there's another reason he's happy he moved to China.

OLSON: It's good for the kids...

PALCA: He's got three now and a fourth on the way.

OLSON: ...To show them that the world is round, to show them that, hey, on the other side of the planet, this is what life is like. And it's been very fulfilling, I think.

PALCA: Olson's chemistry colleague, Jon Antilla, is also pleased with the move. He was at the University of South Florida when he first came to Tianjin University as a visiting faculty member.

JON ANTILLA: Now I have become full time here giving up my position with tenure 10 in U.S. just to come here.

PALCA: For Antilla, there were several reasons for the move. One - he has a Chinese wife who was enthusiastic about the idea, and Antilla says he was attracted by the research climate.

ANTILLA: You really have a lot of freedom, actually, here to pursue your science. The grant funding is easier to get, and that frees you up to think more.

PALCA: There's no question that the amount of money available for research in China is going up. The country has made it clear it plans to be a global leader in high-tech 11 manufacturing, and it created The Thousand Talents Plan to attract top researchers from around the world. Both Antilla and Olson get support under the plan. China's ambitions have prompted great concern in the Trump 12 administration. The worry is that China might be eroding 13 America's technology advantage, not just by support for research but also by theft of scientific ideas and corporate 14 espionage 15. But for now, though, those concerns are not preventing American scientists interested in going to China from doing so.

GREG HERCZEG: (Speaking Chinese).

PALCA: It's lunchtime on the campus of Peking University, and a cafeteria on the edge of campus is packed. Astronomer 16 Greg Herczeg is taking me to lunch. A row of small booths along the wall offers a variety of selections. Herczeg stops at his favorite.

HERCZEG: It's called mala xiang guo, and so people will choose different vegetables and meat, and then it's all mixed together. It's a delicious meal.

PALCA: Herczeg is an astronomer at The Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University. He took a faculty position at Kavli after doing postdocs at Cal Tech and in Germany.

HERCZEG: I wasn't drawn 17 to China. A lot of people who live here are drawn to China for some reason, and I wasn't, but I thought it would be an interesting thing to do to move to China for a few years and experience a different culture. And I have stayed for the past seven years now.

PALCA: Herczeg says, right now, China has the largest radio telescope in the world and is planning to build several new telescopes.

HERCZEG: I think this is a great place to build a career. It's given me an interesting platform, let me work with interesting students.

PALCA: Now, there's no question that working in China has some drawbacks. There are restrictions 18 on the Internet, making it difficult to reach certain websites. And though English is spoken on university campuses, it's not throughout most of the country, posing a problem for many foreign visitors. And free speech in China isn't the same concept as it is in the United States. But Herczeg says there's one thing he has not experienced.

HERCZEG: There's no interference politically on the science.

PALCA: That's a feeling echoed by Jay Siegel, the dean at Tianjin University.

SIEGEL: We've had no political restrictions. I know that people talk about them being out there and, you know, I've heard rumors 19 of things. But for us personally, I would have to say, no, I've not had that experience.

PALCA: Siegel thinks he knows why he and his American colleagues have been left alone to do their research.

SIEGEL: The Chinese have an interesting phrase that says the foreign monk 20 speaks more easily to God. And so this is - you know, when you're a foreigner here, you may get away with things that other people don't get away with.

PALCA: On the other hand, guests' influence may be modest when their opinions don't fit with a country's intentions. While China may be becoming more welcoming to foreign researchers, clearly there is no flood of scientists abandoning labs in the United States for positions in China. But for now, China is trying to make itself an attractive destination for top foreign scientists. Joe Palca, NPR News, Tianjin.