I'm currently self-studying Chinese right now in preparation for applying to a PhD program, and I'm primarily focused on getting my reading comprehension up to snuff so I can read primary/secondary sources in both modern and classical Chinese. My speaking and listening are coming along as well, although lagging slightly behind. I have neglected to learn how to handwrite Chinese characters though. (I can type texts in Chinese). Writing is by far the most time-consuming aspect of learning the language, and it seems to me the least important for my purposes, so I've chosen to focus on reading as it seems the most important.
Would PhD programs require me to know how to handwrite Chinese characters? Is it common for non-Chinese scholars of China to be able to handwrite fluently in Chinese? And likewise is it common for non-Middle Eastern scholars of the Middle East to be able to handwrite fluently in Arabic? Or non-Indian scholars of India Indian languages and so on?
This might depend on your PhD program.
I use the language (and others which have non-Latin scripts) in my research, but I don’t think I ever had to write them down by hand during either my doctoral studies or academic life after completing my studies. That doesn’t mean I can’t do so, but I usually have some piece of technology on hand which negates the need to write them down by hand. Nevertheless, it would certainly be useful for you to be able to write it.