cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3597863
The passport collection drive, carried out under what is known as “personal travel abroad management,” allows local government officials to control and monitor who can travel abroad, how often and to where.
It comes as Xi steps up state involvement in everyday life and clamps down on official corruption. China’s powerful state security apparatus has also intensified its campaign against foreign espionage.
Interviews with more than a dozen Chinese public sector workers and notices from education bureaus in half a dozen cities show restrictions on international travel have been greatly expanded from last year to include rank-and-file employees of schools, universities, local governments and state-owned groups.
[…]
“If we want to travel abroad, we have to apply to the city education bureau and I don’t think it will be approved,” said the teacher, asking that they and their city not be named.
[…]
Residents of restive regions such as Tibet lost their freedom to travel more than a decade ago. Starting in the mid-2010s, some areas applied “personal travel abroad management” rules to local teachers. Last year, after pandemic-era travel restrictions were lifted, more education bureaus began to introduce teacher travel restrictions and stepped them up this summer.
[…]
An entry-level salesperson at a bank in Nanjing said she was told to hand in her passport when she joined the state-owned group last year. After quitting in March, she had to wait six months for a “de-secrecy process” before she was able to retrieve it.
In central Hunan province, a mid-level official at a local government investment fund said he gained approval from nine different departments for a holiday abroad but still could not retrieve his passport.
[…]
The restrictions are hitting retirees as well. A 76-year-old who retired from a state-owned aircraft maker more than 10 years ago said his former employer took his passport back this year for “security reasons” and barred him from visiting family abroad.
[…]
China’s foreign ministry said it was not aware of the situation and referred questions to the relevant authorities.
This is obviously very concerning and unfortunate for the people affected by this. What I dont understand though, is why they have to collect the physical passport and not just put them on a no country exit list?
“Shucks, you know I simply cannot remember where I left it.”
Typical coward fearing the people will forget about him (they will, some already have).
Hey Xi, kill yourself ❤️
This is gonna be a tough one for the tankies to defend…
They will probably just ignore the post completely.
No it won’t, they legitimately believe that the only thing in the world which matters is blindly opposing US hegemony. Absolutely anything is justified to this end, and in the grand scheme of things this is a pretty mild “anything.”
Remember, these are people who actually defend China’s broad censorship of daily life, media and the internet, because freedom of expression is freedom to entertain western values and that is the worst thing a person can possibly do.
lemmy.ml: autistic screeching
You have been permanently banned from lemmy.ml
Promise?
Can you throw in a /latestagecapitalism ban too?
Holy shit
Seems like preparations for war
I want to go back to Hong Kong so badly, and then I keep seeing shit like this which reminds me I never want to visit China.
Not a huge city lover because I find a lot of them very samey but New York and Hong Kong are incredible places.
Last time I was there was before COVID and I wonder how much of it’s vibrance has been sucked out since. 40 minutes north, Shenzhen is drab and lifeless by comparison.
Funny enough, I’m the opposite. You’ve seen a few different countrysides you’ve seen them all. But cities are bustling, vibrant and unique with all different cultures coming together, and Hong Kong (like you said about New York) was at the top of them. I’m really disappointed about how you describe Shenzhen because that’s my worry that will happen to Hong Kong
Yeah I can see that perspective. It depends a lot on the city I suppose.
You gave me pause for thought and I suppose I just like being in nature more. :)
Oh, Berlin and Amsterdam are also stand out cities. Yeah maybe I like them more than I think I do.
Total joke of a government
lemmy.ml: But how dare you call China an open-air prison!!!
What a shit hole.
More reasons to never live in China.
It’s been that way since 3 or 4 years ago. The way it works is that you’ll hand in the passport and if you want to use it, you’d have to apply for it. The party branch (党委) usually has quotas for each year and therefore will seek excuses to reject the application.
I think it has been like this for close to a decade at this point…
Fuckin yikes
China’s ruling Communist party has long prioritised instilling loyalty in students and has made the political education of teachers central to those efforts. Pre-travel instructions for teachers in the eastern city of Wenzhou indicates local authorities are concerned about the ideas they would encounter outside the country.
Cultural révolution pt 2?
It’s hard to understand the absoluteness of the stranglehold that the government has there without visiting. Cameras everywhere tracking everything. Little police booths everywhere to remind you. Even inter-city travel by high speed train requires an ID check. You cannot own your own car in the larger cities without a car license that you must apply for annually. All messaging apps are unencrypted and monitored. etc etc
Do they pretend that it benefits them somehow?
Isn’t this more of a local government thing than a national government thing, as the national government already requires exit visas to leave the country?
If the local government takes your passport, they’re ensuring that you can’t go to the national government and get an exit visa, presumably to protect their labor supply or something.
Too bad the Chinese national government has no control over its local governments, unlike pretty much every other functional nation, isn’t it?
Xi Jinping and his cronies aren’t exactly champions of human rights so I imagine they wouldn’t care either way. They would probably only step in if they were taking passports from party members or there were massive protests like during covid.
The national government is probably not able to do more than a very basic check on would be international travellers. Local government on the other hand is capable to scrutinize individual teachers much more thoroughly.
Ah, makes sense.
