Source: jwb.com.cn

By Yang Tao (杨涛)
Economic Observer Online
May 14, 2012
Translated by Laura Lin
Original article: [Chinese]

A 24-year-old woman from Yunnan's Menglian County (孟连县), a remote rural area of southwest China, reported recently that her passport application had been rejected.

The reason authorities gave: since 2005, too many women from the area have gone abroad to become prostitutes; and when they come back home they spread sexually-transmitted diseases such as AIDS.

Besides, officials noted, too many local young men haven't been able to find wives because of this emigration.

In light of this situation, says the local government, it has simply decided to temporarily suspend approving passport applications from women aged 16 to 35, unless they happen to need to travel on a government-approved trip.

It's true that too many women from this impoverished area go abroad to make money as prostitutes, but in a lawful society no government department has the right to deny the legal rights of ordinary people.

If there is no law forbidding holding a passport then it's not up to public security officials to make their own laws to deal with prostitution.

This latest restriction harms the legal rights of citizens, because there are of course many who go abroad for study, business, or tourism.

If we follow this logic then a man might use his passport to go abroad in order to engage in illicit activities, should his application also be rejected?

And at the same time, the new law won't actually manage to stop those involved in criminal activities, they will always find a way to circumvent such restrictions.

Even the chief of the immigration office in Menglian County, Yang Zhonghua, agrees on this point.

In fact the reason why these women were prevented from going abroad is to save the face of the local authorities who have been criticized for the high level of venereal disease registered on their municipal performance indicators.

Today it's women's passports, maybe tomorrow their clothes will be regulated: a sharp reminder that unrestricted power is always bound to destroy the rights of citizens.

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