A doctor friend told me recently that her son got a job at Huawei Technologies, considered one of the most prestigious employers in China. The young man studied computer science at Tsinghua University and then Brown University in the US. Huawei is starting him at 400,000 yuan (S$72,600) a year, the parent beamed.
Is my friend’s son getting paid too little for this kind of resume? Tsinghua is synonymous with status in China, counting among its famous alumni President Xi Jinping and his predecessor, Hu Jintao. It churns out fewer than 10,000 graduates a year, about the same as Harvard.
Plus, large US technology companies are offering astronomical amounts to woo Chinese talent. Meta recently poached AI researcher Ruoming Pang from Apple with a US$200 million (S$257 million) package. Mr Pang went to Jiao Tong University, a top engineering school in Shanghai.
After some research, I conceded that the Huawei package is fair. A Tsinghua graduate with three years of work experience can expect to make 238,188 yuan on average, according to Zhaopin Limited, an online recruiting services platform.
About one-third are working in tech, and most would boast at least a master’s degree as well. Of the class of 2022, only 10 per cent entered the job market with a bachelor’s degree. Their peers overwhelmingly chose to further their studies.
As China’s “engineer dividend” starts to pay off, big employers seem less willing to offer steep premiums for elite diplomas. Companies like Huawei routinely recruit at so-called Project-985 schools, which refers to the country’s 39 top universities. But candidates are on the same starting line once that threshold is cleared. Some might end up making millions of dollars a year, but they must prove themselves first.
After all, the various tech breakthroughs that China has experienced in 2025 show that innovation can pop out of anywhere.
The chief executive of Manus, which captured the attention of investors with autonomous AI agents that help execute sophisticated tasks, studied software engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan. The founder of humanoid robot start-up Unitree Robotics, who earned Beijing’s acclaim for making machines agile enough to dance and perform gongfu, went to a local university in Shanghai. That’s not a 985 institution.
Beyond those working on deep tech, soft skills, such as teamwork and the ability to deepen client relations, matter more to on-the-job success than academic excellence. Does a Tsinghua diploma signal high emotional intelligence? Not necessarily. It’s perhaps better that my friend’s son jumped onto the bandwagon while the job market still rewards his diploma with higher pay.
This begs the question of whether Tiger parenting and tormenting children with after-school tutoring lessons still make sense. Can the parent’s lifelong project generate positive net present value? Teenagers certainly dislike the academic race to the bottom. A 2016 study found that 40 per cent of first-year students at the equally prestigious Peking University felt life was meaningless, and 30 per cent hated studying.
For centuries, the traditional Confucian culture established a causal relationship between academic excellence and extreme success later in life. As China’s talent pool broadens and society becomes more diverse, that linkage is being shaken. A Tsinghua diploma is no longer so special. BLOOMBERG
Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets.
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