The net result for China:
1) 6 employees that were getting far better wages than they would see at any local company are now without jobs. AT least 4 of them are still unemployed 3 months later.
2) Lost TAX revenue to the PRC (admittedly not that much).
3) A (still) empty office in FuTian and hence a landlord without additional pocket money, and yet more lost TAX revenues against his income.

Come of guys, get it together! We might be foreigners but the only consequence we have in the PRC is generally positive to all of you!

Additional note, for details on RO in Shenzhen, contact FESCO. These guys know it all when it comes to these matters and they also (somehow) get good insights into what is likely to change in a 1 to 3 month timescale. As my account manager at FESCO put it when I closed shop, “Where are all the foreigners going?…”

Thats it.

In Shenzhen (at least) you will need another new letter (this from a good source):

- A report produced by a local head hunting company, stipulating that the company has done a thorough search for two months (advertisement, etc) and has not found the right candidate for the applied position in China, thus is hiring a foreign candidate.

Ridiculous!

The bugger is that while the police force and the FCO will post this to you, the Chinese Embassy in London has no such postal service available – has to be delivered and collected by hand. OK if you live in London; pain in the arse if you live anywhere else.

Take a look online at forums about getting these Police Certificates and you begin to understand how difficult it is to get them online. I downloaded 3 different forms – completed them all and when I got to the police station in my home town they told me the forms were all wrong. They did not have any more of the correct forms so they had one faxed and gave me a copy of the fax. No centralized administration even though the certificates are returned from the same place – I cannot fully comprehend how ridiculous the process is.

One way or another the China authorities have to realize that these increasing restrictions are pushing them backward and threatening their chances to maintain the pace of development. I don’t mind the police check as I have nothing to hide, but it’s just such a long and tiring process for Brits to go through.

This can be problematic, and is a ruling based on the Chinese system of issuing “no criminal record certificates” – which is in place in China. Under the Chinese system, Chinese nationals can apply for such a document in their home town police station (records are kept under the local hukou system). However, in countries such as the UK or US for example, such records are centralised and the local Police station will not have any administrative procedures in place to (a) process the certificate (b) issue it, and (c) if if they did, would have to issue such a document to be valid on a national basis. That could take a considerable amount of time, let alone a trip specifically back to your home country to execute.

We will keep you further informed as to developments on this important issue.