[1] Law enforcement and counterintelligence agencies in the United States, Australia, Canada, and other countries have raised concerns about the program as a vector for intellectual property theft and espionage.

"[10][11] The CCP's United Front Work Department's Western Returned Scholars Association is the official representative body for program participants.

[4] The program also recognizes a small number of elite foreign-born experts with skills that are critical to China's international competitiveness in science and innovation.

[13] In 2013, the Junior Thousand Talent Plan was created to attract faculty members under the age of 40 who have performed high impact research at one of the world's top universities.

"[6]: 117–118  The program provides a one-time bonus of 1 million RMB to select individuals, substantial resources for research and academic exchange, and assistance with housing and transportation costs.

[7] Some Thousand Talents Plan Professors have reported fraud in the program including misappropriated grant funding, poor accommodations, and violations of research ethics.

[23] In June 2023, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested a Chinese TTP researcher on espionage charges for allegedly stealing thousands of files relating to medical robot technology.

[26][27][23] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has indicated that foreign recruitment sponsor talent plans "to bring outside knowledge and innovation back to their countries—and sometimes that means stealing trade secrets, breaking export control laws, or violating conflict-of-interest policies to do so.

"[28] In January 2020, the FBI arrested Charles M. Lieber, the chair of Harvard University's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, for lying about his ties to the program, and was convicted in December 2021.

[29][30][31] In May 2020, the FBI arrested a former researcher at the Cleveland Clinic for failing to disclose ties to the Thousand Talents Program,[32] although a year later federal prosecutors dismissed the case.

[34] In November 2020, Song Guo Zheng, a TTP participant, pled guilty to making false claims to the FBI about his ties to the Chinese government during his employment at Ohio State University.

[6]: 188 Academics Dongbo Shi, Weichen Liu, and Yanbo Wang conducted an analysis of Young Thousand Talent program participants, and concluded "that China’s YTT program has been successful in recruiting and nurturing high-caliber scientists and that YTT scientists outperform their overseas peers in post-return publication, mainly owing to their access to greater funding and larger research teams.