Currently I'm employed by a Hong Kong-based web development firm doing contract work in Shanghai, China. I love it there. I have had the greatest experience living and working in China and I can't say enough good things about that country. All that aside, because of the government tightening its policies, I was unable to get a visa to stay in the country during the olympics. I understand China's desire to have a safe and secure olympics, because it is a celebration of China's accession into great power status. However, I'm not sure if it's policy had the intended consequences.
From my personal experience, I found it incredibly inconvenient to have to travel back to my home country in order to ask permission to return to China. Inconvenient, expensive, and it has caused a massive drop in my ability to get my job done. I don't think that this is the effect that China was seeking. Also, I believe that many other foreigners living in China are having very similar experiences. From my perspective, I think that this makes doing business with companies in China, troublesome. People are less able to rely on companies that are forced into turmoil by massive and sort of arbitrary government policies. I haven't been burned too badly, I am returning to China. But, if this happens again, I think that I will have to reconsider the feasibility of that work environment. I'm not sure, having experienced having to rely on friends and family to house and feed me while I'm away, if I can reasonably allow myself to be in such an insecure position. However, only time will tell. I have a feeling that China really cares how it is viewed and what people's impression of it is. I hope that the Chinese government will take experiences like mine into consideration next time it decides to enact policies.
But as an American, it has become hard to be critical of policies like this given my own government's behavior. I'm born and raised in a small town in Iowa. Recently, the INS deported 400+ people from a town named Postville, IA. In practical terms, this was half of the town and a significant part of the workforce. The people deported were undocumented workers from somewhere in latin america. I strongly disagree with that action taken by my government. Not only was it only the undocumented that were punished, the managers that hired these undocumented workers were left unscathed. I think that is a huge example of hypocrisy, and I am very disappointed about it.
Just a few thoughts as I try to make my way back to the other side of the world again.