ABSTRACT
This chapter explores China's public and institutional attitudes towards the naturalization of athletes over time, the laws and eligibility criteria framing different sports associations’ responses to these attitudes, as well as differences between athlete and association-driven naturalization efforts. Despite being common practice in large parts of the world for decades, mainland China did not allow the naturalization of foreign athletes. The naturalization of athletes – i.e., the admittance of foreign athletes to citizenship of a country so that they can compete for that country – is a rapidly expanding practice in many sports around the world. Less has been written on the topic in the PRC itself, but there is now a growing Chinese-language literature, predominantly focusing on the international experience of sports migration and its relevance for national policy. Under President Xi Jinping, China's legislative bodies have begun pushing for a relaxation of Chinese immigration laws; so far, however, this has had little impact, while causing public criticism.
