In the old days, as a scientist, if you studied hard and worked hard, before you got downsized for being too old, you might make local management rich. They happen to own the government. No great surprise the feds back student loans and encourage the myth of a STEM shortage, feed more minds into the gristle mill. You don't need some kind of actively managed centrally controlled conspiracy, you just need individual actors following their own pocketbooks.

In the modern era, lets say post 1990, as a scientist, if you studied hard and worked hard, before you got downsized for being too old, you might make some factory owner in China who stole your idea and research, and the Chinese .gov bribe takers, very rich. The local management makes all their money off non-scientific stuff like social networks and chat programs, so they certainly don't need science, they've pivoted out of the physical market and left it for the Chinese. Because the rich guys own the government, the .gov also don't care much anymore.

The best hope for modern scientists is to hope for sponsorship / patronage from the Chinese government and hope they can outperform the more numerous locals. Good Luck, you'll need it.