From the NYT:

Hoping to Work in China? If You’re a Class C Foreigner, It May Be Tough

By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW SEPT. 21, 2016

BEIJING — If you’ve ever wondered what class of person you are, move to China and find out.

Starting Nov. 1, the government will begin sorting foreigners into three categories: A, B and C. It is part of a new nationwide work permit system that aims to build an innovation-driven economy by “encouraging the top, controlling the middle and limiting the bottom” of foreigners in China, the state news media reported. …

According to the most recent official figures, in the 2010 census, about 200,000 foreigners worked legally in China and an additional 400,000 were family dependents.

The population of China is 1,357,000,000 so that percentage is, well, not much.

The number seems low. In an email interview, Eric Liu, a consultant at Foreign HR, a human resources company based in Beijing, estimated that there were about two million in total in 2015, with up to 300,000 more working illegally, usually on tourist visas. China needs many more foreign workers, but it is often hard for them to receive visas, he said.

A bent-over Chinese peasant knee-deep in an inland China rice paddy because he can’t get a work permit to move to Shanghai did not share Mr. Liu’s assessment of China’s pressing need for more foreign devils. But he didn’t get interviewed, so who cares about his opinion?

… Class A will include top professional, innovative and creative talent, the newspaper said, without offering concrete examples.

Class B will include other professionals who fit with China’s economic development plans and could fill short-term gaps, especially in management and technical areas, it said. There will be limits in international trade, sports, culture and education.

Class C will include unskilled or service industry workers. These should be “strictly limited,” the paper said.

Points will be assigned according to salary, education level, Chinese-language skills and age, among other things, with at least 85 points needed to qualify as an A, at least 60 for B and fewer than 60 for C, the paper said.

I blame Trump.

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