China Law Blog

So true! I lived in China for three years, and never once carried my passport. When I was there earlier this month, I carried it with me everywhere. I was warned by a friend, who was actually stopped outside Pudong Airport.

CLB opines "...this is just another sign of China's efforts to deport those in the country illegally and to get a firm handle on this in the country legally."

Yes, and why shouldn't it be this way? A foreigner anywhere needs to be prepared to demonstrate the legality of his presence in a host country. No one has an inherent right to walk unrestricted across political boundaries. Not in the USA, not in China.
We all know the stories of how US immigration officials occasionally make sweeps to check documentation.

No need to read xenophobia into a passport-carry requirement. As one of the sport shoe (heaven forbid me calling them sneaker)companies sloganizes, "Just Do It."

That's just ridiculous. Carry around a vitally important document, in your pocket? It belongs in a safe deposit box.

Even in xenophobic Japan, they issue ID cards to foreigners. Only tourists are required to carry passports around.

That may be all well and good to carry your passport, and here in SZ they have started random checks at the second border again, but I hate going out on the weekend with it. Thieves. Pickpockets. Drinking stupors. The possible loss and resultant night mare is better / worse than getting stopped and not having it .....

Is the requirement to carry the passport a legal requirement?? (ie an actual regualtion or a suggestion) I think it is fair enough to have to prove you are legitimately in the country. The issue is what happens if you dont carry it- if there is some eg 48hour requirement to produce it at a later stage or whatever then fine - but if you are going to be interrupted from what you are doing and hauled off immediately to a station - then what?- will they let you go home and get it? and what happens if you dont bring it back to show them?

I was always told that carrying a copy of your passport and visa was enough.

Dan -

I wish that I could agree with you that this is just a law and order matter. Or, as you put it: "...this this is just another sign of China's efforts to deport those in the country illegally and to get a firm handle on this [sic]in the country legally."

In matter of fact, though, the real source of this requirement, and the visa crackdown, is fear of terrorism during the Olympics. I'm in the Shanghai F&B industry, and recently the police have visited all of my restaurants asking that we keep an eye out for suspicious customers [the criteria were not exactly politically correct] and register any employees from Xinjiang!

Quite honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if these visa checks - if they could be monitored - are leveled disproportionately against Africans.

Anyway, Fallows has repeatedly written, in the wake of 9-11, of the US over-reacting to terrorist threats. In fact, I think he just did something on his blog about it the other day. I feel like I'm beginning to see China do the same thing.

Yes, of course, they have the right to enforce their borders and laws. At the same time, though, like the US, they've benefited from not doing so in a strict manner over the last two decades, and - by allowing the threat of terrorism during the Olympics effect their thinking - they are beginning to lose those benefits.