China's dual nationality policy

The basic principles of the China government in dealing with the issue of dual nationality are:

(1) Adhere to one person and one nationality, and do not recognize dual nationality;

2 respect the wishes of the parties themselves;

③ Overseas Chinese who choose China nationality should abide by the laws, customs and habits of the host country, get along well with local people and not participate in local political activities, but their legitimate rights and interests should be respected and protected. From 65438 to 0909, after the Qing government promulgated China's first nationality law "Regulations on Clearing Nationality", China always adhered to the principle of descent: no matter where he was born, as long as he was a descendant of China, he was from China. For example, descendants of China people born in Southeast Asia naturally have dual nationality.

1955 At the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, China and Indonesia signed the Treaty of Dual Nationality, which abolished the status of "dual nationality" for overseas Chinese and made them have to choose a nationality.

The Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China adopted by the Third Session of the Fifth National People's Congress on September 1980 also confirmed in legal form for the first time that China does not recognize dual nationality. The Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates: "People's Republic of China (PRC) does not recognize the dual nationality of China citizens"; "China citizens who have settled in a foreign country will automatically lose their China nationality if they voluntarily join or acquire foreign nationality".

Both parents or one of them is a citizen of China, and I was born in China with China nationality; If one or both parents are citizens of China, I was born in a foreign country and have China nationality, but one or both parents are citizens of China and reside in a foreign country, I was born with foreign nationality but not China nationality; My parents are stateless or their nationality is unknown, and I have settled in China. I was born in China and have China nationality.

China's Nationality Law stipulates that foreigners or stateless persons who are willing to abide by China's Constitution and laws and meet one of the following conditions may be granted China nationality upon application: (1) Close relatives of China people; (2) Settle in China; (3) There are other justifiable reasons.

China's Nationality Law stipulates that China citizens who meet one of the following conditions may renounce China nationality upon approval: (1) Close relatives of foreigners; (2) Settle abroad; (3) There are other justifiable reasons. If the application for renunciation of China nationality is approved, China nationality will be lost. In 2003, 12 CPPCC members, including Chen Duo and Ye Peiying, put forward a proposal on revoking the provision of "not recognizing dual citizenship of China citizens".

Proposal 2 172 of the second session of the ninth CPPCC in 2004

Cause of action: Review opinion on the proposal to cancel the provision of "not recognizing dual citizenship of China citizens": It is suggested that the State Council submit it to the Ministry of Public Security for study. Content: Article 3 of the Nationality Law promulgated by 1980 stipulates that People's Republic of China (PRC) does not recognize dual citizenship of China citizens. It is known that the dual citizenship of China citizens has not been recognized in China since the founding of New China, which played a role in safeguarding national dignity, diplomacy, overseas Chinese affairs and national security during the Cold War and class struggle. With the continuous opening up of China, more and more China people are studying, living and working abroad. New immigrants have the same problems as old immigrants and overseas Chinese. In order to survive in the country of residence (driving test, car purchase, tax payment, insurance, school, employment, etc. ), these new immigrants from China have no choice but to choose their country of residence or even naturalization. Because our nationality law stipulates that "those who acquire foreign nationality will automatically lose China nationality". Therefore, many people in China have to keep their two nationalities tacitly. In their dual roles, embassies and consulates abroad generally just turn a blind eye to these China people. Most of these China people's hearts, feelings and roots are in the motherland.

On the afternoon of February 28th, 2004, Liu Yanhua, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Science and Technology, revealed that in order to attract more outstanding overseas talents, China is considering following the Indian practice and implementing the preferential policy of "dual citizenship" for overseas talents.

In 2005, the Central Committee of the Democratic National Construction Association proposed at the two sessions to amend the nationality law and recognize dual nationality. At the same time, it is pointed out that if it is difficult to amend the nationality law immediately, we can follow the example of Hong Kong and Macao and handle the nationality of China people flexibly. "For example, learn from the home visit permit system of compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to issue home visit permits to foreign Chinese, or learn from Hong Kong's practice to issue China citizens (overseas) passports to residents who have joined foreign nationalities as' travel documents' for returning to China."

20 10 Zhu shizeng, member of the CPPCC and chairman of the Jilin Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, suggested at the CPPCC meeting that conditional recognition of dual nationality is an effective means to attract high-level talents and overseas Chinese to actively participate in China's economic construction and protect the fundamental interests of overseas Chinese around the world according to law. In today's China, it is urgent to amend the nationality law and recognize dual nationality.

At the National People's Congress in March, 20 1 1, Zhu Yongxin, deputy to the National People's Congress, full-time vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party and vice chairman of the China Education Association, suggested that in order to attract and retain high-level talents, a special talent passport system should be established, and most functions of the nationality policy should be replaced by talent passports.

2011March Proposal made by Committee member Han, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the Fourth Session of the Eleventh Central Committee-Proposal on establishing "overseas citizen cards" and "overseas Chinese cards" to attract overseas Chinese talents.

2065438+01On June 29th, CCTV quoted Wang Xiaochu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of People's Insurance of China, as saying that relevant departments were studying "dual nationality". The most realistic way is to further improve the permanent residence system (that is, China's "green card") to provide convenience for returned overseas students who have obtained the status of foreigners.

During the 20 12 session, Ye Jiannong, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Agricultural Workers' Party and a doctoral supervisor of East China Normal University, pointed out that "dual nationality" has increasingly become a "hidden rule" phenomenon that nobody cares about. He suggested that China should either legalize "dual nationality" or prudently supervise it, and strictly block this phenomenon according to the nationality law, "in order to maintain the seriousness of the law". Member Ye said that he personally felt that there was nothing wrong with dual citizenship. "Maybe I still agreed."

20 13 on April 26th, the 26th meeting of the 11th the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) held the second deliberation on the draft law on exit and entry administration. For the general public, this was originally a low-profile legal case. However, after being reported by the media, some members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress made public speeches during the group deliberation, which aroused great concern from public opinion.

The phenomenon of "dual nationality" has officially entered the vision of the highest authority in China. In recent years, with the rise of a new wave of immigrants from the newly rich class and the frequent incidents of "naked officials" and corrupt officials fleeing, the phenomenon of "dual nationality" has attracted more and more attention from all walks of life. However, people, academia and even different government departments have always been divided on how to treat and govern dual nationality.

The hidden rules of "dual nationality"

1980 The Nationality Law of China clearly stipulates that China does not recognize dual citizenship of China citizens. China citizens who voluntarily join or acquire foreign nationality through transnational marriage "automatically lose China nationality". But the reality is far from simple.

The advantage of dual nationality is that you can "have the best of both worlds": you can enjoy generous social benefits from European and American countries, and you can get special care when you invest in China, without the restrictions of visa, house purchase, employment, medical insurance and children's education. This is especially true for the newly rich in China, the main force of a new wave of overseas immigrants. Most of them are investment immigrants, but their main business is still in China. For them, it is even more necessary to retain China nationality.

Therefore, in recent years, many China people who have joined a foreign nationality have deliberately concealed the fact of joining a foreign nationality in order to keep their China hukou at the same time, and some even adopted "black-box operations" such as changing their names and surnames and transiting through a third country (region). This has also led to the current chaos: although the country does not recognize dual nationality, a large number of people hold dual nationality. In fact, "dual nationality" has also become another means for some corrupt officials to "sneak in" and try to escape the blow. However, many corrupt officials fled with the help of other countries' passports. The People's Daily once published an article by Shao, the former deputy bureau inspector of the Research Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the inspector general of the Ministry of Supervision, saying that some officials who violated discipline and law "even secretly acquired foreign identity or dual nationality through various relationships", which is also a new feature and trend that China needs to pay attention to in the anti-corruption struggle. Therefore, many people in China call for strict control of "dual nationality".

However, Chinese in Europe and America keep calling on the China government to acquiesce or recognize dual citizenship. Whenever Chinese leaders visit Europe and America, or when the "two sessions" of the country are held, these overseas Chinese will express their feelings and appeals for this matter through various channels. They believe that in the current era of globalization, the competition among countries for high-end talents is very fierce. However, due to the limitation of nationality, they can't return to China freely and conveniently, and it is still very complicated in terms of visas, settlement, family arrangements for talents after returning to China, schooling for their children, and starting a company. If dual nationality is recognized, it can attract these overseas high-end talents, capital and technology to enter and alleviate the losses caused by the brain drain in China.

The report "Global Politics and Security" released by China Academy of Social Sciences on 20 10 shows that China is becoming the largest exporter of immigrants in the world. At present, there are about 45 million Chinese scattered around the world, and the number of lost elites ranks first in the world. According to the 20 1 1 China Private Wealth Report released by China Merchants Bank and other institutions, nearly 60% of the rich with assets exceeding10 million yuan have completed investment immigration or have relevant considerations. It can be said that China is currently facing a double drain of capital and elite talents.

Therefore, some scholars argue that in order to cope with the severe situation of high-end brain drain, China urgently needs to amend its nationality law. They believe that although subjectively, the "single nationality system" may be able to stop the outflow of talents and wealth. But if a person has the conditions and subjective will to emigrate to Europe and America, he will choose to emigrate even if he is deprived of his nationality.

Regarding the concern that "dual nationality will help corrupt officials to flee", a vice president of China European and American Alumni Association told the window of Nandu that this phenomenon may indeed exist, but the prevention of "corrupt officials to flee" mainly depends on other measures, such as speeding up the pace of official property disclosure, strictly controlling official passports, and legislating that "dual nationality cannot be a national civil servant", rather than denying dual nationality because of choking on food.

"Combination of unblocking and blocking" is still an expedient measure.

The institutional risks that dual nationality may bring are also obvious. The first is the dispute over jurisdiction. For example, if a citizen of China has dual nationality, once he commits a crime in China, he may flee to another country of nationality and ask for diplomatic protection from the other country, or that country advocates that "its own nationals will not be extradited", which brings difficulties to the jurisdiction of China judicial organs. Secondly, because dual nationality involves the policy coordination of two countries of nationality, it may also lead to diplomatic disputes.

"Allowing dual citizenship will indeed bring convenience to overseas Chinese to return to China to invest and visit relatives. However, the key to amending national laws is to consider from the height of national interests. We cannot give up the legislative principles that have been proved to be correct in practice in order to take care of the convenience and interests of a group. " Dr Dai Ruijun, from the Institute of International Law of China Academy of Social Sciences, told Nanchuang reporter that at present, she believes that recognizing dual citizenship "has little advantages but great disadvantages".

In addition, for China, where the current class division is fierce and the sense of opposition between the rich and the poor is serious, if the dual nationality policy is opened, it will actually give ethnic minorities super-national treatment and make them a privilege enjoyed by the minority, which will only aggravate the sense of "deprivation" and inequality of most people in China. Moreover, at present, the dual structure of urban and rural areas still exists, citizens have not fully realized their freedom of movement, and new immigrants in domestic cities have not been treated fairly and fundamentally. Therefore, rashly launching dual citizenship for overseas Chinese may lead to a rebound in the opinions of domestic people.

Therefore, the government has always adopted a low-key and cautious strategy on whether to liberalize dual nationality, and has never let go on this issue. In recent years, relevant departments have also begun to tighten and clean up the actual dual nationality. It's just that this operation started quietly, quietly, without great publicity and was unknown to the outside world.

Since the Beijing Olympic Games, China's consulates abroad have stepped up efforts to clean up dual nationality. Chinese in Canada confirmed that all Chinese who entered Canadian nationality after 2007 must bring the original China passport when applying for a Chinese visa at the Canadian consulate, and the visa officer will cancel the passport in person. This will end the situation that some foreigners still hold China passports.

This new trend can also be seen from the "Draft Exit and Entry Administration Law" currently under consideration. At present, China's entry-exit management information system is established by different departments, such as public security and foreign affairs. Because of their own ways, it is difficult to share information, leaving room for hiding dual nationality. Therefore, this draft law has clearly stipulated that "the state shall establish a unified information platform for entry and exit management". In addition, the law also stipulates that when Chinese and foreigners enter or leave the country, the border police will be able to collect, store and compare their fingerprint information, which also means that in the future, it will be easy for a person holding both China and foreign passports to be exposed.

In addition to strictly controlling and cleaning up dual nationality, China is also adopting more flexible strategies to eliminate the adverse effects of the single nationality system. For example, regarding the introduction of overseas talents, China followed the example of the United States and introduced the "green card" (permanent residency) system in China in 2004. In April this year, Yang Huanning, Vice Minister of Public Security, reported to the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) that it would further expand the scope of issuing China's "green card" and study and expand the scope of application of visa-free entry and multiple-entry visa policies for foreigners. This is also regarded as a "unblocking" strategy adopted by China outside the tight blockade.

In addition, during the second review of the Law on Exit and Entry Administration (Draft), at the strong suggestion of most the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) and European and American alumni associations, a new category of "talent visa" was specially added to the general visa as a flexible policy. At present, the government's idea of strictly controlling "dual nationality" will not be greatly adjusted in a short time, but "dual nationality" is still one of the future policy options. As Liu Guofu, a famous expert in immigration law and a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, said, the world today is an increasingly open era, and immigration is becoming a world trend.