"The flights from New York City to China are packed almost every day," Laurence Huang said, "It's understandable that the Chinese government shall tighten its administration on foreigners' exit and entry. But the new requirements such as invitation letter, which is so easily available, may not help."

"I don't know whether I will be classified as a 'talent' or not, and I will keep a close eye on it," said Huang, who acquired US citizenship in 1995.

Liu Guofu considered the term "talent" over-simplified. "The new law does not give a definition of talents or describe how they are assessed. The general account makes it difficult to implement."

Plan a trip to colorful Yunnan

Liu hoped there will be further explanations about the talent issue in the new law's supporting rules which are being enacted or revised.

He also hoped that the law makers will take the actual conditions into consideration in terms of permanent resident status. "Overseas talents, especially high-level ones, often choose to divide their work time between countries, and many talented Chinese who have acquired foreign citizenship indicate that they prefer this mode of career development."

"You don't have to stay in China to make outstanding contributions to the country," Liu said.

In 2004, China launched a mechanism for evaluating permanent residence status applications from foreigners. The China green card, valid for five or 10 years, exempts its holder from having to apply for a visa each time he or she enters China. Critics, however, have said the threshold is too high for many would-be applicants.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Public Security show that by July of this year, the ministry had granted permanent resident status to 3,275 foreigners, including 621 high-caliber overseas talents. Most of them are of Chinese origin.

On Dec. 11 of this year, 25 government departments just countersigned a set of new methods to further clarify the rights and benefits of those green card holders.

According to the new methods, except for political rights and some other issues that the law has different rulings, a foreigner who holds the China green card enjoys, in principle, the same rights and has the same obligations as a Chinese citizen, such as applying for social insurance, purchasing houses and sending children to local schools.