Lucky for the author though, this is probably the only time he'll have to walk through the China bureaucracy labyrinth. Many of my friends including myself need to deal with it from time to time.
The time I was turned away from China
61–70 of 117 posts
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#62>The reason, as it was explained to me, was that in 2015 I had broken Chinese law when I failed to present myself to authorities in Beijing when I had visited and stayed at an Airbnb residence on two different trips. Unbeknownst to me at the time — and something that was not communicated by Airbnb — foreigners are required to register at a local police station, but in most cases the hotels where they stay handle this…
> democratic countries like Japan To be fair, Japan has only existed as a functioning democracy for a very, very short time, and it still keeps a number of aspects from its previous past as a feudal/centrally governed country.
There are many democracies younger than Japan.
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#63Sounds like he ruined his career covering China. Well deserved. Move on, and start another career covering India or whatever. Maybe China has become important enough that anyone who intends to mess her law within her border would think twice.
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#64I feel it’s kind of shady in the first place to use a transit visa to cover tech events. Do this in the US, it’ll be worst.
The US is just weird, only country i know of that doesn't allow transit. Anywhere else you get off your plane, pass thru security and get back on your outgoing flight. The US seems too cheap to build outgoing immigration booths, and therefore doesn't have real international departure terminals like anywhere else on the planet. I means you can't transit the US without getting a visa
Canada does the same thing. Even if transiting you need to be admitted into the country before getting on your connecting flight.
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This rule is clearly explained on the back of the immigration declaration form Is this in English/other languages, or just in Mandarin? The only part of this story that I find particularly egregious is the part where he was made to sign a form that was only in Mandarin.
Mandarin is the local rule of law language. All contracts I've ever signed that were dual language say that if any conflicts arise, the Chinese language contract will be the one used to settle the dispute. This is reasonable. You would not have immigration officers in the US telling people to sign documents written in Chinese, would you? For one thing, local officials would be unable to process those papers efficient…
> This is reasonable. You would not have immigration officers in the US telling people to sign documents written in Chinese, would you?
Well they do, for the record, if you enter at the right port.
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#66I think a majority of the commenters are missing the point of the article. We get it, you're all smart and know the rules, this guy didn't. That's his point. Instead of having the rules explained to him, he was treated horribly and denied any recourse. That's what its like facing a soulless bureaucracy. I've gone through my own share of that and it's really frustrating getting shuttled back and forth with each person passing the buck and no one to really turn to in order to resolve everything. Should he not have been skirting rules? No shit. Should we completely blame him for being ignorant? Maybe the immigration department is also at fault for not handing out handy infographics written in multiple languages to reduce friction and incidents like these. Notice for example that the author actually had tried to apply for a business visa but hit a brick wall. It's certainly not conducive to foreign journalism on Chinese topics like the burgeoning tech industry, that's for sure.
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#67sorry to sound like a jerk here, while I'm aware things like this happen in China all the time and I am no fan of this type of policies and unclear communications, why does the author call out China in particular when they clearly indicated he has previously broken a Chinese law, now you may not fully agree with the law and there were unfortunate mistakes and lack of communications by his AirBNB hosts, it is still a valid law.
Same thing happens at western countries to Chinese citizens every single day, and yet nobody bats and eye just because Chinese aren't as vocal and expressing their dissatisfaction. Before my family obtained Canadian citizenship (we are originally from China), every time we crossed the US border we'd get questioned like criminals for a good 40 minutes, mind I was a 13 year old child so what crime could I possibly commit while in the US? And it wasn't until recently that I found out my Irish colleagues who do not even hold permanent residency in Canada, their experience going over the US border has been smooth as silk, no question, no fingerprints, no nothing.
I'm sorry I have a hard time emphasizing with the author, and I just don't know what point he's trying to get to here. That China is a shithole that discriminates western journalists? I don't know.
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ya no fan of totalitarian policy, but if you try to skirt immigration laws anywhere, it won't work out well for you. Here in the U.S., I have to notify ICE everytime I change my address.], or I would be deported. Never had the courage to test them...
> Here in the U.S., I have to notify ICE everytime I change my address Yeah, like OP said, "totalitarian shithole"
Reeeee
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#69> "sign a piece of paper that was written in Mandarin" "Mandarin" is NOT a written language, but rather is a group of spoken dialects in Northern China [1]. The Chinese written language is called "hàn zì" [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters
If you use Hanzi to write down something spoken in Mandarin, I'd call the result "written Mandarin". Of course it might at the same time be valid as Cantonese or any of the other languages and dialects spoken in China.
It’s not valid written form of other Chinese languages, for the record. People who speak other Chinese languages learn to read and write Mandarin. Cantonese can be written noticeably differently, in terms of character choice and word order. The same can be said of Shanghainese, Taiwanese, and other “dialects” for which there is extant literature, however small. Also, notably, “Classical Chinese” which is totally different from the modern variants listed above. It’s he same characters, sure, but combining in very different ways.
Re: The time I was turned away from China
#70> "sign a piece of paper that was written in Mandarin" "Mandarin" is NOT a written language, but rather is a group of spoken dialects in Northern China [1]. The Chinese written language is called "hàn zì" [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters
If you use Hanzi to write down something spoken in Mandarin, I'd call the result "written Mandarin". Of course it might at the same time be valid as Cantonese or any of the other languages and dialects spoken in China.
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