Naturalized athletes of China

The Naturalized athletes of China are those naturalized citizens who are part, or have been part, of the People's Republic of China national teams in the Olympic sports.

Alex Hua Tian, the first ever naturalized Olympic athlete of China, played Equestrian - Eventing at 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.

The rules

• Article 3
  • "The People's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national."
• Article 4
  • "Any person born in China whose parents are both Chinese nationals or one of whose parents is a Chinese national shall have Chinese nationality."
• Article 5
  • "Any person born abroad whose parents are both Chinese nationals or one of whose parents is a Chinese national shall have Chinese nationality. But a person whose parents are both Chinese nationals and have both settled abroad, or one of whose parents is a Chinese national and has settled abroad, and who has acquired foreign nationality at birth shall not have Chinese nationality."
• Article 7
  • "Foreign nationals or stateless persons who are willing to abide by China's Constitution and laws and who meet one of the following conditions may be naturalized upon approval of their applications:
    • (1) "they are near relatives of Chinese nationals;
    • (2) "they have settled in China; or
    • (3) "they have other legitimate reasons."[1]

The list

Sport	Country of origin	Origin name	Chinese name	Gender	Born	Naturalized	Reasons
Summer sports
Equestrian	Britain	Alex Hua Tian	华天 (Hua Tian)	M	1989	2006	Born in the UK to a Chinese father and a British mother.[2]
Football	Brazil	Elkeson	艾克森 (Ai Kesen)	M	1989	2019	Settled in China for a long time.[3]
	Britain	Nico Yennaris	李可 (Li Ke)	M	1993	2019	Born in the UK to a mother of Chinese origin and a Cypriot father.[4]
Winter sports
Figure skating	United States	Ashley Lin	林姗 (Lin Shan)	F	2003	2019	Born in the USA to Chinese parents with U.S. citizenship.[5]
	United States	Beverly Zhu	朱易 (Zhu Yi)	F	2002	2018	Born in the US to Chinese parents with U.S. citizenship.[6]
Freestyle skiing	United States	Eileen Gu	谷爱凌 (Gu Ailing)	F	2003	2019	Born in the US to a Chinese mother and an American father.[7]

See also

• Chinese nationality law

References

1. "中华人民共和国国籍法(附英文)". chinatranslation.net. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
2. Williams, Ollie (23 August 2014). "World Equestrian Games: China's 'one in a billion' rider Hua Tian". BBC Sport. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
3. "Brazil-born Elkeson included in China squad in landmark move". CNA. 18 August 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
4. "李可或在春节期间随母返回广东 进行认祖归宗仪式" (in Chinese). 1 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
5. "Naturalized Lin eyes Olympic glory". China Daily. 18 September 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
6. "中国花滑归化第一人首秀确定 有望参加北京冬奥会". Sina. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
7. "中国滑雪归化选手 15岁美籍华裔天才少女转为中国国籍". china.com. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.