Goodbye Foreign Visitors
Any foreigner living in China now will tell you that something weird is going on. Our fellow foreigners are disappearing in great numbers. It as if wild animals are picking them off on their smoggy bike rides to work. Increasingly we feel like Mexicans just inside the American border: looked upon suspicuously, regardless of the legitimacy of our legal status. Perhaps that overstating things, but a lot of people are moving away.
Visas are not being renewed for perpetual tourist and business folks. Some of these de-facto expulsions”are legitimate, like people who hang out in China, teaching in a semi-legal status. Others, like business people who are frequent visitors to China, are wrong-headed. The most peculiar trend, and a prominent one at that, is it appears anyone born 1984 or later gets an automatic rejection on new work visas. It’s not clear if this is an effort to open up jobs for young Chinese graduates, an attempt to reduce the number of lower skill foreigner workers, a move simply to cull the number of expatriates in China, or if it’s a completely arbitrary policy. (When in doubt, it’s probably the last option.)
Whatever the impetus, the results are clear. Handfuls of going away parties are taking place each week. Hutong and other apartments are suddenly available, causing great consternation for Chinese landlords. And there is a general sense of unease, particularly with the 25 and under foreigner crowd.
The policies are not defined clearly, causing irritation and headaches all around. HR departments are unsure how to handle things, and people with legimate jobs are fearful.
Good Luck Beijing Olympics! Welcome to live in China!
Jakob Montrasio responds:
Posted: June 20th, 2008 at 2:02 pm →
Some of my friends here in Shanghai are also affected by this… It’s so weird…
I hope it calms down after the olympics, but who knows…
The worst thing is the uncertainty!
Glen responds:
Posted: June 20th, 2008 at 3:43 pm →
What? Arbitrary policies in China? I’ve never heard of that before….
chriswaugh_bj responds:
Posted: June 20th, 2008 at 7:28 pm →
I just got legal for another year. I’m starting to think mid-July we should hold a survivors party. Then again in mid-September just to see how many of us got through.
I do have to say, though, that I was most impressed with the professionalism of the PSB Exit-Entry Bureau- apart from one minor oversight.
revi responds:
Posted: June 22nd, 2008 at 7:26 am →
I wonder if the Overseas Chinese (the Hua Chiao) and the Taiwanese living in China are also having the same problems renewing their visa etc.
Lu responds:
Posted: June 22nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm →
Taiwanese with Taibaozheng can get in and out as they please, I believe, so if you already have such a zheng it’s no problem, but from what I heard it’s difficult to apply for a Taibaozheng right now.
nanheyangrouchuan responds:
Posted: June 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 pm →
The 24 and under crowd tends to be more idealistic about those pesky human rights and love to make videos of general bad Chinese behavior. Older expats tend to make more money (to spend in China), have expat jobs and stay holed up in their expat compounds, willingly oblivious to the real China.
克来夫 responds:
Posted: June 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm →
@ under 25s – possibly this means there will be fewer backpackers and gapfillers ‘working’ their way around the schools.
Imgladtheirgone responds:
Posted: June 24th, 2008 at 4:26 pm →
nanheyangrouchuan wrote this nonsense:
“The 24 and under crowd tends to be more idealistic about those pesky human rights and love to make videos of general bad Chinese behavior. Older expats tend to make more money (to spend in China), have expat jobs and stay holed up in their expat compounds, willingly oblivious to the real China.”
Stated like a know-nothing under 25 year-old pup who needs an ass-whupping from the older Alpha males in the expat community…that’ll put him back in his place quick enough!
That statement is one of the more peurile and baseless things I’ve read on this site.
As an older expat in China who has had no difficulties renewing his residence permit for the umpteenth year just this week, I am glad all the backpackers, gapfillers, shady businessmen, Nigerian scammers, Indian drug dealers, Russian hookers, and brainwashed young middle-class just graduated Yanks are all being given their exit papers by the Chinese authorities.
All they did was cause trouble. The crime rate will surely drop, now that the low-lives are gone.
With all the laowai parasites being kicked out, maybe the foreigners who actually work hard and contribute to China’s development will finally begin to be appreciated more and rewarded commensurate to their abilities.
As it was, some dumb-ass 20 year old Liverpudlian who could barely read or write English and had no real skills could work illegally on an F or L visa and receive the same level of respect and monetary rewards, if not better, than an older highly skilled foreign expert with years of experience that actually brought value to China.
I say Good Riddance to the Scum!
nanheyangrouchuan responds:
Posted: June 26th, 2008 at 9:51 am →
@ Imgladtheirgone
The “older alpha males”? You mean those ugly, smelly, social outcasts from the west who have been driven into China’s interior by smarter, fitter, much better looking younger expats. So now you think you have a chance with China’s urban females? With China’s yuppie crowds? Alot has changed since 1985 and you are not special, you are just old.
@ any fired up Chinese nationalists:
Do the West and China favor and dump the old expats in the nearest canal, river or public toilet.
Rhys responds:
Posted: June 27th, 2008 at 1:08 pm →
Well getting rid of the foreign riffraff seems to be working a little too well, if this Economist blog is anything to go by…..
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2008/06/beijings_hotels_getting_nervou.cfm
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