CPPCC member: China should embrace more expats

China should clarify its murky migration policies to draw in more people from overseas, said Xu Lin, member of the CPPCC.[Photo/China.org.cn]

China should clarify its murky migration policies to draw in more people from overseas, said Xu Lin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and director general of the Confucius Institutes headquarters. [Special coverage]

Xu made the remark at the ongoing CPPCC session, China's top political advisory body which runs from Mar. 3 to Mar.12 this year.

According to Xu, the third provision of China's migration policies states only those prestigious people who have made significant contributions to China's economic, cultural or social development are eligible to obtain a permanent residence permit.

The policy is too ambiguous as how do we know who these prestigious people are and how significant their contributions should be, said Xu.

According to her, big immigration countries, like Canada and the United States, judge the qualification of the applicants according to specific measures in which scores are given for people's professions, experience and education. "The policies are very clear and people can understand them even before seeing their attorneys."

Xu said China has issued no more than 5,000 green cards in almost 10 years since the ratification of the Measures for the Administration of Examination and Approval of Aliens' Permanent Residence in China in 2004. This number is much lower than that of immigrants in the United States, which constitutes around one million each year. Even the single number of Chinese immigrants to the United States just last year, reaching some 60,000, is much higher than that of a decade-long foreign immigration to China.

Despite China's position as the world's second biggest economy in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the country is lagging far behind in the creation of an international talent pool, Xu concluded.