On July 31, 2016, the Office of the Central Organization Department of the Communist Party of China issued the notice of  the second batch of national ten thousand people plan---leading talent selected list, Prof. Zhou Youyong was selected for the second batch of the national ten thousand people plan ---Philosophy and Social Sciences leading talent.

This plan is known as the special support plan of national level talents. The overall goal is to use about 10 years time to support the outstanding talents leading talent, and young talents in natural science, engineering technology, social science and philosophy of higher education and other fields.

       In the published list, there are 2 Science and technology innovation leaders, 1 philosophy expert and 1 Social Sciences talent teacher from Southeast University in it.