Hunting Season in Shanghai: Foreigners targeted

Our ongoing reader survey is showing us that a lot of you are foreigners. So, as a service to you we thought we would alert you that you very well could be walking around the city with a bull's-eye on your back. Shanghai is cracking down on laowais without work permits, according to this Shanghai Daily report:

The monthlong inspection effort aims to make sure companies have acquired work permits for their foreign employees and those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, said the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau yesterday. Businesses that violate work rules face fines ranging from RMB5,000 to RMB50,000 and will be required to complete proper documentation. Workers who lack permits could be sent home.

Officials said about 60 expats were warned, fined or forced to leave the country for various reasons, including illegal employment, last year: "And Today's campaign is the result of growing concern that government work rules are increasingly being violated". (Uh, yeah. Government work rules are violated every minute in Shanghai -- but don't give foreigners all the credit. We Chinese do a pretty good job of violating the rules ourselves.)

The report also gave sound advice for laowai who want to work here:

Foreigners and overseas Chinese can be granted a work permit for China after signing an employment contract and acquiring a work visa.

Students are banned from taking jobs here as are those who hold tourist or short-term business visas.

It is the employer's duty to apply for a work permit for foreign employee.

If students and tourists are banned from taking jobs here, the film industry is going to take a hit: Who will they get to be the extras?