I confess!

We were reminded this morning that there's nothing even close to a probable cause requirement for police stops in China, let alone a prohibition against racial profiling. Two members of Beijing's finest detained us as we were headed out for the day, and continued to inspect the passports of other passing people who looked "foreign," including one Chinese woman who made the mistake of looking like a Korean today. So, for the first time in our lives, we were stopped by the police solely because of the color of our skin. And unfortunately for us, we had unwittingly fouled up some of our official paperwork.

When you study in China and live off campus, the immigration process should go something like this:

1. Obtain X visa from closest Chinese consulate in the United States
2. Enter China on X visa
   
3. Rent apartment
4. Go with your landlords to register at the apartment management office. Obtain slip of paper to take to local office of the Public Security Bureau.
   
5. Proceed to nearest Public Security Bureau station with landlords as soon as you sign the lease, give them the slip of paper from the apartment management office, and receive a "Registration Form of Temporary Residence," good for 30 days
   
6. Apply for "Residence Permit for Foreigner in the People's Republic of China" within 30 days, using the "Registration Form of Temporary Residence." This involves giving the PSB your passport for a week, and then retrieving it once they've pasted a big sticker into one of the pages.
   
7. Return to your local PSB office, and obtain yet another "Registration Form of Temporary Residence", good for the remainder of your stay.

We got tripped up between steps six and seven. Evidently we were supposed to get a copy of our first Registration Form of Temporary Residence at the Immigration Office, and return to the PSB once we got our passports back. But we asked the Immigration Office for the documents that comprised our application, and they told us we didn't need them.

Despite our expectations, the PSB officers were extremely nice, particularly when we called our landlord, who explained for us that their colleagues in the Immigration Office never told us about step seven. Ms. 016275 had impeccable English, and was really calm during the entire process, while Mr. 037257 had a little bit more trouble communicating, which made things a bit more difficult. Still, we took down their badge numbers just in case, and we had to sign a confession.

The confession form was a special one made just for this situation, entitled "Form of Self Statement for the Fact of Breach of Law by Foreigner." Within the form was a special section, which said:

Statement of the fact of breach of law. (You are required to state in detail reasons and responsibilities to the fact of breach of law in China as well as your attitudes toward the penalties.)

Under prompting by the female officer, Katie wrote the following:

I have lived at Yicheng Dongyuan Garden and did not re-register at the local police station as I was unaware of the necessity to do so. I understand that I have been given a warning. I apologize for not complying with the requirement, and will comply this afternoon.

The officer really wanted Katie to write, "I know I was wrong to break the law and apologize for doing so," but Katie just couldn't bring herself to take the dictation of that last sentence. She got pretty close, though.

After this all happened, we headed back to the PSB office and met our new officer "friends." While there, we learned that the PSB can access any other government system in which we've been registered, including the Peking University system. But while the clerks were processing our paperwork, the officers asked us what we were studying. When we told them it was law, they laughed.

The lesson? Driving while white with bad paperwork is a crime in China. Also, any time you change your residence or immigration status in China, you must re-register at the local PSB.