Professor Ren Xiaobing said he was pleased to have made the right choice in 2009, when he decided to return from Japan to join Xi'an Jiaotong University in Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

In January, he and his scientific team were awarded the 2016 National Science and Technology Award.

"Now is the best time for scientific research in China. China has a bigger stage, more opportunities and a much larger space for growth and development," he said. "Under such circumstances, we overseas returnees can make our mark on the world."

Xinhua News Agency reported that more than 40,000 high-end professionals have been recruited under the "1,000 Talent Plan" that China adopted in 2008.

The number of recruited professors or others with equivalent titles has jumped 20 times compared with the period from 1978 to 2008. This is the largest influx of returnees since 1949.

Such an influx of talent has had a positive impact on development. So far, China has more than 300 entrepreneurial parks for students returned from overseas. More than 24,500 enterprises have been set up in the parks by over 67,000 overseas returnees.

"China is now closer than ever to attaining its dream of national rejuvenation and China is now more eager than ever to attract more talented people," President Xi Jinping said on the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Western Returned Scholars Association in October 2013.

Yue Wenhou, deputy secretary-general of the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Development Foundation, said this is a sincere invitation to talent around the world.

Tang Yonggang, a senior official from the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the reasons for the influx of returnees are the great attention paid to the matter by the Party, national development, the advantage of Chinese socialism, and patriotism among overseas Chinese students.

Wu Ning, who graduated from the Imperial College London in 2003, returned to Shanghai and founded a company that researches immune cell therapy. He said he felt very honored to connect his own dream with the country's dream.

suzhou@chinadaily.com.cn