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On May 14, the Beijing police launched a 100-day campaign targeting foreigners illegally residing and working in the city.
According to the Exit-Entry Administration Department of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (BMPSB), foreigners targeted by the campaign are those who illegally entered China, stay in the capital with an expired visa or have a job without a valid work permit.
Most of the foreigners who are illegally in the city do not have a proper job or a stable income, and they have become a major source of crime.
“With growing exchanges with the outside world, more and more foreigners come to China. The group has become much more complicated than in the 1980s, causing many social problems,” said Chen Tianben, an associate professor at the Chinese People’s Public Security University. “Those foreigners who violate Chinese laws should be punished, as everyone is equal before the law.”
Official data show that 52.11 million foreigners entered and exited the Chinese mainland in 2010, a 133-percent increase from 2001. The number reached 54.12 million in 2011. Foreigners staying in China for more than six months numbered 600,000 in 2011, up from about 20,000 in 1980.
“Last year, the police investigated more than 20,000 cases involving foreigners who illegally entered, lived or worked on the Chinese mainland, double the number in 1995,” said Vice Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning in April.
Police actions
The ongoing crackdown in Beijing is the first to target illegal foreigners in the city.
Beijing, second only to Shanghai in terms of the number of foreigners with residency permits on the Chinese mainland, was home to about 120,000 foreigners at the end of 2011. Since 2008, 13,000 cases of illegal entry, overstaying and illegal employment have been reported in Beijing, involving foreigners from more than 100 countries, according to exit-entry statistics.
According to recent statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, 80 percent of foreigners identified as illegally residing in China do not initially intend to do so.
“Some foreigners, whose visas have expired, cannot afford tickets back to their countries, or are unable to find jobs in China, often resort to crime,” said Lin Song, a senior passport control officer with the BMPSB’s Exit-Entry Administration Department.
Under regulations backing the campaign, foreign visitors, tourists and expats are required to carry their passports and accommodation registration documents with them.
“We’ll check passports and accommodation registrations in areas of high concentrations of foreigners,” Lin said, adding that the move is aimed at making sure each foreigner is aware of Chinese exit-entry regulations.
Among the locations he mentioned specifically are Sanlitun, an area in Chaoyang District popular for its shops, bars and restaurants, Wangjing in Chaoyang District, where about 40,000 foreigners, mostly Koreans, live, as well as universities in Haidian District.
According to Lin, a hotline to receive tipoffs about illegal foreign residents has been set up by police as part of the campaign, and in a more preventive move, a text messaging system reminding foreigners when their visa is about to expire is also being used.
Dai Peng, Director of the Department of Criminal Investigation of the Chinese People’s Public Security University, said that the campaign is part of the regular work of the police.“China has opened its doors. We expect foreigners to respect and obey Chinese laws and regulations if they come here,” Dai said.
Beijing is not the first place on the Chinese mainland to initiate a crackdown on illegal foreigners. Early in 2007, south China’s Guangdong Province started campaigns to curb the illegal entry, residence and employment of foreigners.
In May 2009, police authorities in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, launched a special campaign to closely inspect the living and business areas of foreigners. The main targets were those who had not applied for stay permits and held fake or overstayed passports, according to the city’s police authorities.
Today, Guangzhou has developed into a major trade hub in south China for foreigners, especially those from Africa and the Middle East. More than 1 million foreigners enter or leave via Guangzhou ports each year.
Sources with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences said more than 20,000 African people with a stay permit for up to six months are living in Guangzhou.
“But the actual number of African people living here is bigger than the registered total. Many don’t have a passport or a stay permit,”said Huang Shiding, a researcher with the academy.
Legal improvements
However, Wu Xinming, a professor at the Department of Foreign Policing Affairs of the Chinese People’s Public Security University, said that a sound legal system, instead of sporadic and temporary crackdowns, is needed to thoroughly solve the problem of illegal entry, residence and employment by foreigners.
China’s existing law on exit and entry administration was established in 1985, which barely mentions illegal employment of foreigners in China. “The law has lagged far behind the times,” Wu said.
Under the current legal system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for issuing visas, while police officers are tasked with verifying their documents and carrying out routine examinations at entry ports.
Once foreigners have entered China, information about them will be archived ac- cording to the purpose of their visit.
For instance, records of overseas students are kept with the Ministry of Education, and those of foreign employees are kept with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs or other related agencies.
“Under such circumstances, investigating overstaying and illegal employment totally relies on public tip-offs,” said Zhao Yu, another professor at the Chinese People’s Public Security University. He admits people usually do not report overstaying or illegally employed foreigners in their neighborhood unless the latter has infringed upon their rights.
In response, a new law on exit and entry administration has been submitted for deliberation to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, in April. The law is expected to be enacted by the end of this year.
The draft law stipulates that foreigners working in China need to acquire a work permit and legal documents, and those found to be illegally entering, living or working in China can be deported and banned from entering the country for five years.
“We shall make efforts to regulate foreigners who are working in China, improve visa issuing procedures, and strengthen the residential management of foreigners,” said Vice Minister Yang.
An article about the collection of biometric information for the use of border control is in the draft law. It grants police authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the right to issue regulations on the collection and storing of biometric information, such as fingerprints of travelers entering and exiting China.
Collecting biometric information will help identify travelers, improve the efficiency of border control and protect state security, Yang said.
Favorable policies
As a populous country, China would like to introduce more high-caliber professionals and limit the inflow of low-quality workers, Yang said.
In recent years, China has adopted a series of measures to attract foreign professionals. In 2008, the country initiated the Thousand Talent Program to attract 2,000 foreign scholars or Chinese people who had been educated overseas, and encourage them to work in advanced and hi-tech industries, as well as start up their own businesses in China in five to 10 years.
By the end of 2011, 4,752 foreigners had been given a permanent residence card, or the Chinese equivalent of a green card, according to figures from the Ministry of Public Security. All foreign employees in China now number about 220,000, or about 37 percent of all foreign residents.
“We will increase the eligibility quota for green cards and consider extending the applicable scope for duty-free entry and multipleentry visas in order to make China more competitive in soliciting foreign investment and talented people,” Yang said.
In another sign of the country’s efforts to attract talented individuals from overseas, a new visa category titled “talent introduction”was added to the draft law on exit and entry administration.
Ordinary visas will be granted to foreigners who enter the country to work, study, visit relatives, travel or conduct business, as well as to those who fall under the“talent introduction” category, according to the draft law.
In March, Yin Weimin, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, said that China will make greater efforts this year to resolve visa and residency permit issues for foreigners.
China will introduce favorable policies for foreigners in relation to social insurance, taxation, medical services, education for their children and academic funding, Yin said.