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Bertrand · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 293

It's also illegal to spend the night with a woman you are not married to; even if it a girlfriend you came with.

phillipl · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 24

Roger

I can only say "Different courses for different horses!"

The authorities here (the 4th largest city in China) go out of their way to protect (welcome) us "humble" foreigners! I guess it's like the difference between living in New York and Las Vegas!

It is the LEASURE capital of China!

noodles · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 67

Hamish · Joined: 20 Mar 2003 Posts: 333 Location: PRC

I had a discussion with some Chinese here at our school regarding the right of police to enter one�s home. They all said that the police must have a warrant to do so and that this was a �Constitutional� provision.

Searching the Chinese Constitution I found the following section that protects �citizens of the People's Republic of China� and says nothing of foreign residents rights. I have a few more books to read before I finish my LLD but I believe the language here creates a substantial loophole to assist police should officers want to enter one of our homes or hotel room, sans sino citizenship as most of us are.

http://product.chinawe.com/cgi-bin/lawdetail.pl?LawID=114

CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Article 39 The residences of citizens of the People's Republic of China are inviolable. Unlawful search of, or intrusion into, a citizen's residence is prohibited.

Regards,

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Noodles asks what might happen if someone was caught sharing a bed with a member of the opposite sex without being married to that person. Well, the Chinese law is pretty straitforward on this although it is not being observed so strictly anymore!
In fact, by law premarital or extramarital sexual gratification is likened to prostitution (hear, hear, Chris in Henan!).
A Singaporean told me that his company was in a cooperative venture with a CHinese nationalised oil company in XInjiang. That was in the early 1980's. Xinjiang was not yet really open to foreign travellers (the Karakorum Highway was opened in 1986). The expat workers were rather more lonely than they are these days. One of them was drawn into a liaison with a Chinese girl. A PSB man became suspicious and raided the expat's room. He locked the bewildered expat out. Then a shot rang out. The woman was shot by the police officer!
Don't know if this is true or not. MIght very well be though!
When I lived in Shenzhen, I had a Yunnan girlfriend. We lived together in a relatively clean and new neighbourhood. It took the neighbourhood police station only two days to be in the know. They came, but, to my amazement, asked merely to see "ni laopode shenfenzhen!" I answered I had no wife. They smiled amiably but insisted she was my laopo! So I showed them her ID card (she was gone). That was the last I saw of these guys!
But in downtown Shenzhen, I had a scary encounter with the police! One day, I carried the suitcase of another girl to her hotel room. We knew each other, but we were not romantically involved. The hotel had no lift, so I had to carry it up 6 floors! As soon as we stood inside her room, the telephone rang.
The receptionist warned us that the police were coming after us!
We waited for them.
They knocked, we opened. They wanted to see both our ID's. We obliged. The policeman told us I was not allowed to stay in the same room with a Chinese lady!
Nevertheless, they departed without taking me in their tow!

ESL Guru · Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 462

Hamish -

It is all in the interpretation....

According to at least one Shanghai Court the search warrant is to look for evidence of a prior crime but is not required if it is believed a crime is in progress. Now doesn't that just throw the door wide open?

Isn't hiding evidence of a prior crime also a crime in progress? Obstructing?

Hamish · Joined: 20 Mar 2003 Posts: 333 Location: PRC

ESL Guru · Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 462

Hamish -

If I am not mistaken, in the US they have something like "probable cause" to believe that a crime is in progress.

In China it is a "suspicion."

BIG - BIG Difference!

xiaoyu · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 11:41 pm Post subject:

i never really had a problem with the police... maybe it was because i am a woman or maybe it was because my chinese boyfriend for a time was the son of a PSB chief in shenyang..... don't know though.... they were all very very pleasant to me (meaning that i think they got bribed well enough to turn the other way when things weren't supposed to be happening)

i stayed in hotels many different times with my then chinese boyfriend and never had a problem at any point during my stay. it probably is worse for the men though..... figure that the cops (if they didn't know who i was) thought i was just another russian working girl..... Wink

just goes to show though why you want to have international legal counsel on hand if possible and really watch yourself everywhere... you never know who is going to get a hair up their crack and come after you!

xiaoyu