Only about 30 percent of Chinese students have come back to their motherland after studying abroad, from 1978 to 2009, the Nanfang Daily reported Wednesday, quoting the Overseas Chinese Study 2011 edited by Huaqiao (Overseas Chinese) University.

According to the report, the first one focusing on overseas Chinese, about 1.62 million Chinese students went abroad to study between 1978 and 2009, among whom only 497,400 have come back. The rest mainly stayed in the developed countries.

The phenomenon is accompanied by another trend of more and more wealthy people from the Chinese mainland moving abroad, forming a huge outflow of capital.

Data from the Beijing Entry & Exit Service Association show that about 1,000 Chinese people applied for a US EB-5 investment green card visa in 2009, up from 500 in 2008.