China’s foreign professionals seek to form a new circle of friends for giving back to society

Newly formed Foreign Expert Society aims to nurture understanding and international cooperation to ‘pay back’ to adopted country

First meeting sees Fores members agree to help China attract foreign talent but also be careful to stay safely apolitical

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Members of Fores meet for the first time at a hotel in Beijing on November 18. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:00am, 28 Nov 2022

A group of about 20 foreign professionals in China have formed an organisation to “boost their own and China’s development”.

The group called the Foreign Expert Society, or Fores, includes people from science and technology, business and health care, and development and design.

Most of the group met initially last year when they were invited by the Ministry of Science and Technology to meet Premier Li Keqiang and mark the centenary of the Communist Party last year.

Strict Covid-19 protocols for the events required invitees to be first quarantined in a hotel for several days so the foreign professionals used the time for an informal meeting, to share their stories of living in China.

That meeting was the start of a longer conversation about setting up something more formal to help foster their connections.

The group has since grown, adding new members after a visit to an exhibition last month to see the “Forging Ahead in the New Era” exhibition in Beijing.

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