Geopolitical tensions and the transformation of postdoctoral policy: China's strategic response in a shifting global landscape

Abstract Postdoctoral systems have become a strategic mechanism for states to cultivate elite research talent and advance national innovation. This study examines how intensifying geopolitical tensions, specifically US‐China technological rivalry, have reshaped China's postdoctoral policy since 2013, a period aligned with a global shift towards research nationalism and the securitisation of science. Employing a qualitative research design, it combines critical discourse analysis of policy documents with interviews with postdocs in fields like artificial intelligence. The findings reveal a decisive policy reorientation from international engagement towards a securitised framework prioritising technological self‐reliance, research security and domestic talent retention. Consequently, resource allocation is increasingly concentrated in strategic domains where a security logic now supersedes established academic and market logics. Evaluation regimes operate with dual standards of national contribution and international publication, exacerbating identity tensions for postdocs navigating the roles of strategic scientist and global scholar, thereby reshaping their career trajectories. Theoretically, the study bridges critical geopolitics and institutional logics by conceptualising the postdoctoral system as a meso‐level arena that translates geopolitical discourse into research practice, introducing security as a key additional logic in governance. We argue postdoctoral systems are being reconfigured as instruments of techno‐nationalism, with significant implications for global knowledge production, academic mobility and the complex balancing of openness, risk governance and career sustainability in research talent policy, particularly for the Global South.