(Ecns.cn)--Yang Fan (alias), a Chinese professor who is a naturalized American citizen, will never forget the embarrassing night when he was detained in the Beijing Capital International Airport.
"I returned to Beijing that day to give a lecture," Yang recalled. "After arriving at the airport, I found my visa had expired. I was detained a whole night even though I said I'm Chinese and I had asked the embassy to give me a certificate." In his description, Yang still seems to recognize himself as a "Chinese person" even though he has acquired US citizenship and renounced his Chinese citizenship.
Luckily, Yang's experience does not happen often. For most Chinese with overseas citizenships, they usually prepare well before returning home. First, they have to queue up for visas from the Chinese Embassy, just like foreigners. After returning to their "hometown," their children have to study in international schools because public schools are no longer available to them. Moreover, the families will be required to leave the country every six months to apply for new visas. If the country is holding some important events, such as the Olympic Games, the time limits on their visas will be reduced to one or two months. They must pay 5,000 yuan per day if they fail to exit on time.
In the face of these embarrassing and cumbersome procedures, more people are asking, "Why is it so difficult to return home?" The answer is: China does not recognize dual citizenship.
Dual citizenship allows a citizen to have two nationalities, that of both his motherland and another country at the same time. According to the terms of the China Nationality Law, as soon as a Chinese citizen takes a foreign citizenship, he will automatically lose his Chinese citizenship.
However, as the number of overseas Chinese has increased greatly since the reform and opening-up period of the late 1970s, more and more experts have begun to criticize the current citizenship policy because it is keeping away Chinese overseas talents.
