Chinese passport

Question

Since this topic is a bit sensitive to be asked directly to the Chinese Embassy, I wonder if someone can answer or knows anyone with experience.

PRC (China) does not allow dual citizenship, so if you are a Chinese and get a different passport, you lose the Chinese citizenship. My question is: What happens if the ex-Chinese citizen, after 2-3 years, decides that actually having a Chinese passport was better (for example: he/she wants to move back to China)? Does anybody know if Chinese government would allow this person to give up the new passport and apply again for a Chinese one?

Answer 1

First, it's not the passport that matters -- it's the nationality. If you are first a Chinese (PRC) citizen and then voluntarily acquire a foreign nationality, then by PRC law you automatically lose Chinese nationality at that point. Even if you naturalize in a foreign country and then don't get a passport, it wouldn't make a difference -- you would still have automatically lost Chinese nationality.

If you're asking whether it's possible to re-acquire Chinese nationality after losing it, that's a harder question. Theoretically, the PRC Nationality Law, article 13, provides that foreigners who once had Chinese nationality can apply to re-acquire it with suitable reasons. However, I am not sure there is actually a publicly-available process to do this. I know that there have been a number of prominent scientists who have renounced US citizenship and regained Chinese citizenship, but I am not sure whether they were afforded special treatment or whether there is a process available to people in general.