Foreigners Feel the Heat in China
Rowan Callick reports in the Australian:
Business people in China, especially in Beijing where about 250,000 foreigners live, are facing ever tightening controls as the Olympic Games approach on August 8.
The protests surrounding the international torch relay, and the responding nationalist surge in China, have contributed to a more challenging environment for working and living there.
This starts with tougher conditions for obtaining and renewing visas. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said this week: “We are more strict and more serious with the procedure” of issuing visas.
As the Olympics approach, “Peaceful Olympic Action” teams including police have begun sweeping through apartment compounds, knocking on the doors of foreigners’ flats, asking about everyone who is staying there and checking residency permits and other documentation. Foreigners and migrant workers are increasingly stopped on the streets and asked to produce such documents.
Many meetings, concerts and other events involving foreigners are being scrapped by government order as the Games approach.
