> 8 of the top 10 universities by global research output are Chinese. Having been in academia before, I don't see this as meaningful (quantity vs quality). But

> 8 of the top 10 universities by global research output are Chinese. Having been in academia before, I don't see this as meaningful (quantity vs quality). But it is just as much as not meaningful for American universities. The biggest problem with Chinese universities is that they mostly teach classes in Chinese, so you have to become fluent in Chinese first, which takes around one or two years of intensive Chinese study. And branch campuses...you need to avoid those. Harbin Institute of Technology in Shenzhen is probably not going to be the same thing as studying at HIT in Harbin (and aren't all of the institute of tech universities run by the PLA?). Focus on top schools only: Guangdong, Zhongshan (sun yat-sen) University is pretty good, Shanghai Jiaotong and Fudan in Shanghai, PKU/Tsinghua in Beijing, the science and tech one in Hefei, etc...if you are a foreign student and work your way up from their language program your chances should be OK (but my experience is 20+ years out of date so who knows).