Then how come we hear about foreign born professors stealing secrets from universities? Are those fake news? I am genuinely curious.
But honestly the vast majority of the knowledge transfer is happening through more legitimate means. Even the famous Stanford machine learning professor Andrew Ng got poached by Baidu.
This twitter thread from law professor Sarah Burnstien is related - https://twitter.com/design_law/status/1166326853952557059
Claiming continued ownership over something that is in somebody else's head after they have left your legal sphere is somewhat problematic.
Also, it is rather cheeky, as the US research community has relied massively on brain drain from poor or wartorn countries for quite a while now.
i think we could be nudging up against a born secret mentality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_secret
I would be concerned about this concept being widened beyond nuclear energy research.
as an example computer ubiquity and internet connectivity allow 4th/5th gen warfar to exist. If encryption or miniturization, or transmission media were considered subject to born secret doctrine that could make things very difficult and somewhat partisan.
I feel also, that you can't really go around telling people that they are banned from emigrating due to what they know, unless you also have a labyrinth containing a minotaur, fed with captured foreign citizens.
Although, I have to say, it would not greatly surprise me by this point to learn that this was in fact the case.
when a western scientist goes to work in China, the nutters are angry because of "loss"
if an easter scientist comes to work in US, the nutters are angry because of "loss"
it's just in-group out-group identity politics bullshit...
just like how in times of slavery interracial marriages were a big no-no because it blurs the agreed-upon line of class separation ("which class does the mixed child belong in?" the biological expression of a mixed child [that we are fundamentally the same] contradicts the ideological expression [that we are fundamentally different]) so today any form of mingling is viewed as a threat to warmongers (who want to maintain a simple thus virally contagious worldview)...