Legislators in Guangzhou have called for a coordinated response
to the growing number of crimes committed by foreigners in the
metropolis.
A proposal by 13 legislators has called for the establishment of
a database to closer track the activities of foreign people living
or doing business in the city.
"The coordinated management scheme and information sharing
database should involve all related governmental organizations,
including departments of foreign affairs, public security, health,
labor and social security, industry and commercial and civil
affairs, as they used to deal with affairs of foreigners
separately," Yan Xiangrong, a deputy to the Guangdong Provincial
People's Congress, told China Daily.
Yan indicated that the proposal was drawn up based on recent
findings that the number of illegal activities by foreigners had
risen in recent years.
"We noticed that illegal activities by foreigners had increased
by about 40 percent from 2001 to 2005," Yan said.
Guangdong, a province that has led the way in
reform and opening up, has seen a rising number of foreigners enter
the region in the last few years.
There are currently more than 40,000 foreigners registered as
residents, most of whom live and do business in the capital city
Guangzhou. In addition, there have been more than one million
visitors in the last five years, sources with the provincial
security department said.
Authorities detected 2,442 foreigners involved in illegal
immigration, residence and business in the region in 2001. This
number soared to 6,362 in 2005.
In Guangzhou alone, 131 foreigners were repatriated in the first
half of last year as they did not have official permission to live
and do business.
"Based on public security sources, we find that there have been
some foreigners who have even committed crime," Yan said.
In 2006, five foreigners were arrested at Guangzhou Baiyun
International Airport on smuggling charges. In one case, an Iranian
national was caught trying to smuggle 7,000 grams of the drug 'ice'
out of China in his luggage.
"Foreigners have contributed greatly to the province's rapid
economic development over the past years," Yan said.
"But those without legal permission to live and do business in
Guangdong, and especially those who commit crimes, pose a great
threat to the province's social security," he said.
"This (database) is a good idea, but the most important thing
for the government to do is help foreigners learn Chinese rules and
laws," said Tim Ziegler, an American businessman in Zhaoqing.
"Most foreigners are not willing to break rules and laws, but
they are set up by different departments and we don't know how to
obey them."
The proposal was put to the congress last week, but it is still
in its early stages and there is no timetable for it to become
law.
(China Daily February 15, 2007)