Photo: GT

Gu Tailai, who went to the US for advanced studies in 1987 following the reform and opening up policy, had lived and worked there for 20 years.

Gu earned a PhD from the University of Arizona and returned to China in 2007.

Between 1978 and 2017, China has sent 5.19 million people abroad for further studies and 83.73 percent of them returned.

"When I was in high school, the most I learned were formulas that were based on rote memory," He recalled. "I found out it was wrong after I studied in the US. At my classical cybernetics class, I spoke but was interrupted by the professor many times."

"My professor said the content of my discussion was only based on own opinions, and were not based on facts. I was confused at that time," he said. "After training for a long time, I finally embraced a scientific system that uses facts to see things logically."

After returning to China, Gu used what he learned to do research on the operating system for bike-sharing and received IP rights for it in 2011.

Gu said he now has full faith in China's national regulations on protecting IP as the country values science and innovation at this stage of reform and opening up.