During a 2008 campaign stop, for instance, then-candidate Barack Obama spoke in alarmed tones about the threat that such academic competition poses to US competitiveness. “If we want to keep on building the cars of the future here in America,” he declared, “we can’t afford to see the number of PhDs in engineering climbing in China, South Korea, and Japan even as it’s dropped here in America.”
所有这些竞争都令西方感到了相当大的压力。在2008年的某站大选活动中，当时还是候选人的奥巴马就以警告的口吻强调这类学术竞争可能会威胁到美国的竞争力。他当时是这样说的：“如果咱们将来还想让美国汽车工业维持下去的话，我们就不能无视工程类博士学位在中、日、韩这些国家的增长，即便这些学位都是在美国授予的。”