If you choose to believe one newspaper over the others, you are free to do so. But I'm curious to know why you find China Daily more believable than Peoples Daily.

The truth is that the, well, "truth" about the matter cannot be determined from the skewed statistics of a newspaper. The words "it has been reported" don't hold a lot of water in my opinion. Reported by whom? Moreover, logic would dictate that the Chinese government would take firm steps to halt the practice of students studying abroad if it were indeed true that 70% of them didn't return home. On the other hand, I could be completely wrong about this. I'm willing to admit that, but while the jury's out I still reserve the right to call it a silly notion.

I might add that most university students I have polled on this and other related matters have expressed a sincere desire to help their motherland to grow, prosper and gain respect in the eyes of the rest of the world. Those that have expressed an interest in studying abroad do so from the (warranted) perspective that their future careers at home would be better were they to do so.

And not to digress to far from the argument, but I can't help wonder about the statistics from another standpoint. What was the economic situation of those who chose to stay? Are they/were they the spoiled scions of the fat ass rich? How many of them chose to stay abroad for romantic reasons? Well, no matter what, does their choice speak for the population as a whole. I think these are fair questions that need to be asked and answered before we come to the conclusion that they are a representative group of a huge population.