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China Visas. I'm Getting Deja Vu Olympic Feelings, Part IV. New Reports Of Visa Raids.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

Got an email this morning from someone I know in China, reporting the following:

Police in Guangzhou are doing very aggressive passport checks to prevent what they call ?? [the three must prevents]?meaning ???? [illegal entry]????? [illegal housing]????? [illegal employment]. In a moment of candor, one very nice police officer admitted it was because of the CPC congress and the upcoming 60th anniversary of the revolution. The police came into Starbucks in a group and basically accosted a group of very well dressed foreigners, who appeared to be from the Middle East. These foreigners could not speak Chinese and the police could speak only a very little pidgin English. The foreigners were hustled off in a paddy wagon. I asked what would happen to them and I was told they would be held at the local police office until their identities can be verified. The police were extremely polite to me and just looked over my passport briefly. The community where I live is also covered with posters and slogans about illegal immigration written in both English and Chinese. I have never seen anything like it, even after living here for more than six years.

I also received a call yesterday from a lawyer here in the United States (calling for a completely separate reason) who told me of a client of his that had just been "raided" by the Chinese police who had been "tipped off" that there were foreigners working there on tourist or business visas. The client claimed this was part of a "general" visa crackdown going on in this particular Chinese city (which I should not reveal). I ask again, what are you seeing out there regarding visa issues? The last few times we have done posts like this one, we have received comments and/or emails from people pointing out that China is merely enforcing its laws and that we should not be criticizing China for doing so. I completely agree. The point of these posts is NOT to criticize China, it is to highlight the importance of getting legal on visas. There are countless foreign companies in China right now (including clients of my firm) that are operating there without being registered, employing foreigners (and Chinese) illegally. The point of these posts is that if you are going to do business legally in China, you must register your company in China (in most instances). Once you have registered your business in China, you are then positioned to be able to legally hire foreign employees legally on Z visas. What are you seeing out there?

Full post as published by China Law Blog on May 20, 2009 (boomark / email).