China has no plans to issue a special type of permanent residency card for overseas Chinese, the head of the State Council's Overseas Chinese Affairs office said on Sunday. [Special coverage]
Previous media reports quoted an official from the Zhongguancun Science Park in Beijing as saying that the district plans to allow ethnic Chinese with foreign citizenships to enjoy permanent residency or other benefits in China to attract overseas talent.
"There has been no plan yet to issue an ethnic Chinese [permanent residency] card. But to my understanding, many overseas Chinese are paying close attention to this card, which brings convenience to their work and life in China. Therefore, we also pay a lot of attention [to the card]," said Qiu Yuanping, director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, said in an interview before the third plenary meeting of the fourth session of China's 12th National People's Congress on Sunday.
"We will continue to communicate and cooperate with relevant departments to promote such a program," Qiu noted.
In July 2015, 12 measures were introduced in Shanghai, followed by 20 measures launched by the Zhongguancun Science Park in Beijing in March 2016, to lower the threshold and streamline the application process for foreign talent who wish to apply for the Chinese "green card."
China forbids dual citizenship. From 2008 to 2014, only 1,306 foreigners were given a Chinese "green card."
