The world today is very different from the 1960s, particularly regarding both the US and China. I have absolutely no doubt that there are unbelievably intellige

The world today is very different from the 1960s, particularly regarding both the US and China. I have absolutely no doubt that there are unbelievably intelligent people in Africa now, just as there were (and of course are) in China and everywhere else where people exist. The lack of infrastructure, support and adequate living conditions is all that severely limits them from reaching their potential and they know this, which is why they climb the Everest of bureaucratic hurdles to get to a place like the US. China is a unique case because it has become wealthy (enough) very quickly and critically also has a very large population, which statistically increases the chances of very intelligent people appearing given the right conditions; if 1% of a billion population is very intelligent that's 10 million people in real terms. I don't think the US has the dominance it did in science like it did in the 60s, when Europe and Japan were still recovering from war and China was still poor. I think the loss of a large number of Chinese students would certainly have an affect on the US's development in science today.