The role of ethnic ties in international collaboration: the Overseas Chinese Phenomenon

The term ‘Overseas Chinese Phenomenon’ is used here to refer to the fact that scientists of Chinese descent play an important role in international collaboration between mainland China and the rest of the world. In this paper, we review international collaboration between ethnic Chinese scientists in eight countries – USA, England, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Korea – and colleagues in China itself. Our analysis shows that while ethnic ties play an important role as a bridge between China and the country of residence, policies of the Chinese government with respect to international collaboration and overseas Chinese reinforce the growth of ethnically based co-authorship.