China is used as a case study to examine the problem of "brain drain," the departure of skilled professionals and students from their own countries to live and work in the United States. Chinese attempts to adjust their policies for study abroad are reviewed, including proposed controls on what Chinese students study abroad, who goes abroad, and where they go. Conditions discouraging students and scholars from returning to China are also outlined. These conditions include inadequate academic infrastructures, poor and inequitable salaries, inappropriate use of scholars' skills due to inefficient bureaucracies, authoritarian political and social environments, intellectual decay, resentment of other faculty, and increasing demand for skilled workers in the United States. It is suggested that to encourage students and scholars to repatriate, home countries should take more responsibility for encouraging their nationals to return home by making home-country employment attractive, making ongoing training available, providing opportunities for them to respond creatively to home-country needs, and creating organizations and publications for the professional and intellectual communities. Host countries are encouraged to assist returning professionals through continued training opportunities, relevant education, and opportunities to apply their training to home-country issues. Examples of successful repatriation efforts are noted. (MSE)