Immigrants Are Competing For China In The Winter Olympics

China, host to the Winter Olympics being staged now, has long been a very closed society, only permitting those with Chinese blood to become citizens.  Recently, though, China has realized the value of letting non-Chinese with particular skills – in science, technology, education, medicine, economics… and sports – become permanent residents.  Furthermore, permanent residents can now compete for China’s Olympic team.

As a result, nearly 35 athletes (a national record) of China’s 176 Winter Olympic team members are foreign citizens, including some, like skier Eileen Gu, who are American.  This is in keeping with the policy of the International Olympic Committee, which only requires residency, not citizenship, for an athlete to compete for a particular country.

For some athletes, what is Chinese is not so simple

Support FIELD