Chinese Cryptologists Get Invitations to a U.S. Conference, but No Visas

[BurtWorm]

More news from Fortress America...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/business/worldbusiness/17code.html?pagewanted=print


By JOHN MARKOFF

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 16 - Last year a Chinese mathematician, Xiaoyun Wang, shook up the insular world of code breakers by exposing a new vulnerability in a crucial American standard for data encryption. On Monday, she was scheduled to explain her discovery in a keynote address to an international group of researchers meeting in California.

...


Although none of the <eight of nine Chinese> scientists <invited to the conference> were officially denied visas by the United States Consulate, officials at the State Department and National Academy of Sciences said this week that the situation was not uncommon.
...


The visa snag angered organizers of the annual meeting of the International Cryptology Conference, who argued that restrictions originally created to prevent the transfer of advanced technologies from the United States are now having the opposite effect.

"It's not a question of them stealing our jobs," said Stuart Haber, a Hewlett-Packard computer security expert who is program chairman for the meeting, Crypto 2005, being held this week in Santa Barbara. "We need to learn from them, but we are shooting ourselves in the foot."

...

[DBoon]

1. After the 2004 event, they discussed moving out of the USA

just for this reason.

More cutting-edge science fleeing the USA.

[NewJeffCT]

2. no wonder scientists are leaving this country

heck, our president is pushing Intelligent Design to be taught alongside evolution. They had an interview with a stem cell expert at the Univ. of Connecticut (my local school) a few weeks back after the big Korean discovery... (this guy was a Chinese-born US citizen) and he was lamenting that our stem-cell policy had led to several top people to go elsewhere rather than work with him.

A good friend of my wife had a co-worker making $200,000 a year research job at a prestigious institution. This person, a Chinese-born green card holder, is leaving to take a similar job in Shanghai at $80,000 a year. While $80,000 a year in Shanghai goes further than $200,000 in the US, something like this was unheard of even 5 years ago.

I had also read some time in the past year that for the first time in memory, more Asian students (Indians, Chinese, Koreans, etc) are going to colleges in Europe as opposed to the US.

[BurtWorm]

3. Who needs brains in a theocracy?

:eyes: