Chinese officials are considering ways to convince top foreign scientists to work in the country, which could imply a ‘green card’ system – the permanent residency system used in the US – is on the horizon, the South China Morning Post reports. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly warned that the country is too dependent on key technologies produced outside of the mainland, emphasising the need to be more self-reliant.
A resolution published after last week’s third plenum stated that the government planned to “explore avenues for establishing an immigration system for highly skilled personnel” and improve its support mechanisms for overseas recruitment.
The resolution also pledged to “expand international science and technology exchanges and cooperation, encourage the establishment of international science and technology organisations in China” and improve communication between Chinese research groups and their foreign counterparts.
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The idea of permanent residency for foreign scientists was welcomed by Alexey Kavokin, a Russian-French theoretical physicist and director of the International Centre for Polaritonics at Westlake University in Zhejiang province. Kavokin has lived in China since 2018.
“I would be delighted to have a Chinese green card,” he told the Post. “Currently, I have a residence permit and a work permit. [Renewing] them was not so easy.”
Kavokin noted that administrative hurdles had been frustrating during his time in China, and said he believed permanent residency could eliminate many of them. He added that China’s “excellent funding opportunities”, multitude of well-equipped laboratories and highly motivated students already made the country an attractive place for top-level scientists like himself.
“Once the bureaucratic obstacles are removed, it could become a Mecca for physicists, similar to how it used to be in the USA in the 1950s-1960s,” he said.
