Thread: China Will Soon Fingerprint All Foreigners Before They Enter the Country

China Will Soon Fingerprint All Foreigners Before They Enter the Country



February, 10, 2017

Judging by a report from the South China Morning Post, it appeared that President Donald Trump was not the only leader of a major power with concerns over the identities of foreigners entering the country and dangers they might pose.

Beginning Friday, nearly all foreigners entering the communist nation of China will have to submit their fingerprints upon entry. The additional process will first be implemented at the Shenzhen Baoan International Airport before gradually expanding to other airports across the country over the remainder of the year.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, all foreigners between the ages of 14 and 70 will be fingerprinted upon entry, with their prints stored for official use, though it remained unclear whether the prints would be shared among the various agencies of the Chinese government.

Foreigners who have already acquired a visa or those on a diplomatic passport would be exempted from the new policy, as would those Chinese citizens entering the country from the semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau, as well as the breakaway province of Taiwan (that’s how the People’s Republic sees Taiwan, anyway). Those individuals are not considered foreigners by the Chinese government and therefore require only a home return permit instead of a passport and visa.

“Storing biological identification information of people entering and leaving borders is an important border control measure, and many countries have started to implement the regulation,” the public security ministry said in a statement announcing the new procedure.

According to the U.K. Independent, the ministry’s statement added, “The collecting of fingerprints has become common practice for border control authorities around the world. Authorities will ensure that the new system is efficient and does not result in unnecessary delays.”

It was estimated that more than 76 million foreigners visited China last year, mostly coming from South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Breitbart noted that China will not be alone in gathering such information, as such procedures were already in place in such nations as Australia, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S., which began collecting fingerprints in 2004 after the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack.

The additional security measure was largely due to increased concerns in China about radical Islamic jihadism, mostly coming from neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan, which in turn is fueling increased radicalism among the Muslim Uighur minority living in the largely autonomous western Chinese province of Xinjiang.

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http://conservativetribune.com/china...gners-do-this/

Wow!! How do you like that!! I don't like that myself. Do we do that? I sure hope not.

Ugh.

Do we start chipping people? Eye scans?

How do we track the millions and millions of people and weed out the bad guys?

1/20/16

U.S. will use facial recognition at airports

1/9/09

U.S. to take DNA from all arrested, detained illegal aliens

9/19/11

Digital fingerprints at border: will help speed up crossing

Last Updated: Monday, 5 January, 2004, 23:17 GMT

US fingerprints foreign visitors

The fingerprints of 24 million visitors will be checked each year

Stringent new security regulations affecting most tourists have been introduced at US air and sea ports.

Everyone entering the United States with a visa will now have fingerprints and photographs taken and scrutinised.

People on the visa waiver scheme - such as tourists from much of Europe, Japan and Australia - are not yet affected, but those on work visas are.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the US aimed to be "open to visitors but closed to terrorists".

All 115 US airports that handle international flights and 14 major seaports are covered by the programme, under which customs officials can instantly check an immigrant or visitor's criminal background.

A similar programme is to be launched at 50 land border crossings by the end of next year.

ENTERING THE US
Visitors will still face travel document checks and questions regarding their stay

Visa holders will now also have two fingerprints scanned and a digital photo taken

Decision will then be taken on whether to admit them to US

Eventually, fingerprint and photo checks will also take place on departure

There was a mixed reaction at Dulles Airport, the main international entry point for Washington, with some of those fingerprinted saying they understood why the new checks were wanted.

But Brazilian Carlos Pimenta, his bags piled high on a cart, complained: "It's very embarrassing for us. I don't think it's appropriate to do this kind of stuff."

The BBC's Matt Frei saw the new procedure in action at Dulles and says the new checks are scheduled to add only about 15 seconds to the entry procedure.

But he adds that the extra measures are another sign of the US trying to find the right balance between freedom and security in a post-11 September world.

Called US-Visit, or US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, the new scheme will check an estimated 24 million foreign visitors who enter the US each year through airports or seaports on tourist, business and student visas.

Digital technology will be used to take fingerprints and photographs, which will be electronically checked against a national digital database for criminal backgrounds and any terrorist lists.

Usage concerns

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says the data will be stored securely and made available only to "authorised officials on a need-to-know basis".

These include customs and immigration officials, DHS transport security officers and consular officers of the state department.

Have Your Say
I fail to see how ink pads and cameras are going to stop terrorism

Alex, UK expat, Sydney, Australia

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But access may also be given to other federal, state, local and foreign officials.

"Careful safeguards... will ensure that the data is not used or accessed improperly", a DHS policy statement says.

Eventually, the process will be repeated when the foreigners leave the country as an extra security measure and to ensure they have complied with visa limitations.

Mr Ridge launched the programme formally at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the southern state of Georgia.

He said the system had been tested at the airport for several weeks and had proved a "resounding success".

The technology was "easy for travellers to use but hard for terrorists to avoid", he added.

Discrimination claims

The measures replace the old special registration programme, which was said to have discriminated against Muslims and people of Middle Eastern origin.

But claims of discrimination are still being made by some of those countries whose nationals are affected.

Brazil has made formal complaints and started fingerprinting and photographing all US citizens arriving at its main international airports.

The US visa waiver programme allows citizens mainly from European nations to visit for up to 90 days without visas.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3367893.stm

Honestly? We've been doing that since 2004??!! That sucks.

Originally Posted by Judy

Honestly? We've been doing that since 2004??!! That sucks.

It's part of the vetting process. I for one support the vetting of all visitors, not just refugees.

That's not vetting, that's building a global database of fingerprints for some illicit purpose without an arrest, a cause, or valid reason. I totally object to this for our country and any other.