China 'to introduce fingerprinting for foreign workers'

China is getting tough on foreign workers with plans to introduce fingerprinting across the country

All foreigners who stay in China for more than six months will be required to give their fingerprints to local police when applying for residence certificates, according to draft laws submitted to its National Peoples’ Congress this week.

This would affect all foreign workers, students and visitors who plan to stay in the country for more than half a year.

China already has stringent rules for resident permits which are given every year to foreigners working there – these include compulsory health screenings before starting a job.

Until last year China required foreigners to undergo mandatory AIDS tests before they applied for resident permits. However, this was scrapped following criticism that it discriminated people with HIV.

A spokesperson from CRCC Asia, which finds internships for British young professionals in China, said: “I feel as though this new change isn't really going to have that much of an impact on my privacy in Beijing because if the government wanted to find me they would definitely be able to do this. You already have to register your location at your nearest police station within 24 hours of arrival and need to update this permit on a regular basis."

He added: “Furthermore, the government plans in the future to enable free local wi-fi in Beijing that will need you to register your mobile phone to in order to use which would allow the government to track your internet usage. I feel as though this is definitely more of an invasion than the fingerprint analysis.”

Many expats are widely accustomed to biometric testing as fingerprint analysis has been used in the U.S following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and is also used by UK passport controls. Malaysia recently introduced fingerprinting for all visitors to the country.

According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, bureaucrats are also looking to force foreign nationals to obtain work permits to help control illegal foreign workers. It said that as a nation with a huge supply of labour it needed to “strictly control” the entry of ordinary foreign workers while it manages the introduction of “high-end talent".

 While these are further examples of Chinese authorities making life harder for foreign workers – earlier this year it introduced a social insurance tax for foreigners – the numbers are still increasing substantially each year.

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