Home -> Law Blog Directory -> International Law Blogs -> China Law Blog

International Law

: China Law Blog

Sex And The Olympics. Sex And China Visas. A Beijing Brothel And The Magic 8-Ball.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

Josh Gartner over at Cup of Cha blog notes how a brothel near one of his favorite restaurants in Beijing recently closed, apparently as part of a governmental effort to clean things up before the Olympics. Josh assumes the brothel will be back after the Olympics, if not before, and I am guessing he will prove right on this. In addition to cracking down on houses of ill-repute, the Chinese government has both stepped up its pursuit of visa violators and greatly tightened the requirements for securing visas. The question on visas is whether they, like the brothel near Josh's restaurant, will eventually be returning to their status quo of maybe six months ago. My prediction is that things will definitely loosen up again after the Olympics, but they will remain considerably tighter than in the past. In particular, I expect F visas (business) and L visas (tourist) will become much easier to get after the Olympics, but I expect the difficulties in getting them extended within China will remain. I also expect multiple entry visas will be easier to get than now, but will remain more difficult than in the past. We are starting to hear of a tightening of educational requirements for Z visas (employee) and I expect that type of visa to revert back to "normal" after the Olympics. I base this predictions on a combination of conversations with trusted and knowledgeable people in China (some of whom have themselves been discussing these things with governmental officials), my experience and knowledge of how other countries handle these visa situations, and my Magic 8 ball.* * In the interest of full disclosure, I asked the 8-ball whether Chinese visas would revert back to the way they were six months ago and the ball told me two times in a row to ask the question later. Those of us experienced with the Magic 8-ball know that when it gives the same answer twice in a row, it is 100% accurate. I interpreted its telling me to ask again later to mean that even the Chinese government has not yet conclusively decided what it will do post-Olympics. The 8-ball answered "definitely" regarding the return of the Beijing brothel after the Olympics.

Full post as published by China Law Blog on June 08, 2008 (boomark / email).