More talent back from overseas, but work still needs to be done

While China's rapid economic growth provides major appeal to draw homegrown talent back from overseas, further legal development remains essential to attracting more, according to Liu Xuezhi, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science.

"The number of overseas returnees is highly correlated with China's GDP," Liu said.

His studies found that the number of overseas returnees has been skyrocketing since 2000, a time when China's GDP began to experience rapid growth.