No plans to implement new border control measures

There are no plans to implement China’s new border control measures for foreigners crossing mainland borders with Macau in the near future, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) revealed.

On February 7, China announced that it would start collecting and storing the fingerprints of foreigners entering the country via some of its borders, including the Bao’an International Airport in Shenzhen.

The measure applies to all foreigners aged between 14 and 70 when entering China, except for those holding diplomatic passports or under reciprocal conditions.

The PSP informed the Times that since “fingerprint collection recipients do not involve Macau residents of Chinese nationality, and since the first experimental cities did not include mainland border checkpoints that are intimately connected with Macau, the Migration Department of [China’s] Ministry of Public Security (MPS) haven’t, for the time being, notified the Macau SAR government on the matter.”

The PSP added that when or if such measures are implemented, the Macau authorities will be notified in advance, citing the close communication and cooperation between Zhuhai and Macau authorities in this field.

The measure has been enforced in Shenzhen since February 10 and at the international airports of Tianjin Binhai, Xiamen Gaoqi and Urumqi since February 28, according to information from the MPS and the PSP.

Both authorities stated that “the border control bodies of China will adopt effective measures to improve the efficiency in border checkpoint processing in order to grant normal entry and exit” and that the implementation of these procedures are not expected to cause major delays.

According to MPS, the collection of foreigners’ biometric data is a “measure of reinforcement in migration management” and similar measures “have been implemented by several countries.”