Shi Yigong and Rao Yi Headline NYT Article

The New York Times published an article today titled as "Fighting Trend, China Is Luring Scientists Home". It headlines the two prominent returnees, biologists Shi Yigong and Rao Yi, as examples how Chinese-born star scientists are now being lured back to their homeland.

What is surprising and interesting, though, is its mention of Rao Yi renouncing his American citizenship:

Rao Yi, a 47-year-old biologist who left Northwestern University in 2007 to become dean of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University in Beijing, contrasts China’s “soul-searching” with America’s self-satisfaction. When the United States Embassy in Beijing asked him to explain why he wanted to renounce his American citizenship, he wrote that the United States had lost its moral leadership after the 9/11 attacks. But “the American people are still reveling in the greatness of the country and themselves,” he said in a draft letter.

There was no words about Shi Yigong, who had been criticized in China for preaching/teaching patriotism to Chinese students while holding an American passport himself.