China is aggressively trying to recruit talented foreigners in the science and technology fields to come live and work in the country, this time with a newly unveiled visa program.
To fit the needs of China’s economic and social development, “foreign high-end talent” such as scientists and entrepreneurs will be eligible for the program, reported Xinhua, the Chinese regime’s official news agency, on Jan. 4.
They will receive a 5- or 10-year multiple-entry visa, which will allow them to stay up to 180 days at a time. The application is free and can be processed as quickly as one day. Spouses and children will receive the same visa.
The Chinese authorities’ guidelines also list Nobel Prize winners, postdoctoral students from world-class universities, and national-level sports coaches within the “high-end talent” category, according to the South China Morning Post.
In an ambitious bid to become the world leader in advanced technology, the Chinese regime already has initiated recruitment programs to attract Chinese nationals and foreigner workers to China’s science and technology sector, with a package that includes guaranteed employment at a Chinese university, research institute, or state-owned enterprise; a cash bonus of up to 5 million yuan (about $770,000); and a research subsidy.
This latest visa program makes living and working in China even easier for the talent being recruited.
A tourist waits to inquire about entry visas to China at a Chinese mainland operated travel company in Hong Kong on April 07, 2008. Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images
Chinese newspaper Beijing News reported that the first “foreign high-end talent certificate” was issued to Microsoft Asia-Pacific human resources director George Sajualumootil, who said he frequently travels to China for business. The certificate is a requirement for receiving the visa.
Two others also received the certificate: Chong Gu, a professor of statistics at Purdue University, and Lucio Soibelman, a professor at the University of Southern California’s engineering school.
On the other hand, visas are often denied to foreign journalists and academics who are outspoken critics of the Chinese regime, among them Perry Link, a China expert at Princeton University who sympathized with student protesters during the 1989 democracy movement, and Paul Mooney, a journalist who has reported on Tibet, Xinjiang, and social injustices that have occurred in China, among many others.
