After trying unsuccessfully for years to forge a world-class national men’s soccer team, China signaled it was considering a surprising new tack: offering citizenship to foreign players. As WSJ's Chun Han Wong reports:

The proposal has sparked debate in an ethnocentric country with strict immigration policies whose leaders have moved to curb foreign influence in its culture and national discourse. “I’d rather see yellow-skinned players lose than see people of other skin color play for the national team,” one person wrote on the Weibo microblogging service. The tempest followed comments on Saturday by a senior Chinese...