Indigenization and inclusion in Chinese academia

China’s national academies have long served as barometers of academic development and scientific prestige. We use publicly available information to develop a dataset comprising 3,534 academy member profiles spanning 1905 to 2023. Using this dataset, we examine the evolving composition of China’s academic elite. Here we show that despite increasing globalization, the proportion of foreign-educated academy members has declined, while scholars from underrepresented regions—Western China and developing countries (or the Global South)—have benefited from preferential inclusive policies. Some elite-level returnee academics experience research underperformance upon returning. These trends reflect a broader shift towards academic indigenization and have wider implications for meritocracy, mobility and the sustainability of China’s talent strategies. This study examines complex reasons behind the above developments.