Part Two: Check Your Press Credentials at the Consulate
As we prepared to go to China, one thing we discovered we would need is not only a U.S. passport (which we already had from previous trips abroad), but also a travel visa. This isn’t required for a simple two-week vacation in Europe. But just to enter China, you need a visa. The process of getting a visa is interesting. There are only a few Chinese consulates in the United States, but luckily one of them is in San Francisco, where my brother lives. Because we are family and traveling together, they allowed him to walk into the consulate with both of our passports and visa applications (without me being present). Of course, we also had to have already booked our flight and also show them our flight itinerary. They want this so they know exactly when you enter and exit the country. So, we booked our flight in February.
When I was filling out my visa application, I noticed it asked for the type of business I was in as well as specifically who I worked for. At this point, I realized my brother would be walking into the Chinese consulate to ask for permission for both a journalist and an employee of a free-market think tank to travel together to China. I called him up and asked him, “Do you think a communist country is going to allow a journalist and a guy who works for an organization that supports economic freedom to travel together into China?” My brother brushed off the concern. After all, thousands of Americans travel to China every day.
So, he went to the Chinese consulate, stood in line for a couple hours, and submitted the applications (which also cost us $140 each). The consulate also takes your passport and tells you it will be a few days before you get a response. But all looked good and he went home. A few hours later, someone from the consulate called him. They apologized for missing this while he was there, but asked him if he was a member of the media, as he had checked that box under his type of employment. He answered yes and told them he was a sports writer. They were uncomfortable with allowing a journalist to go into their country. He told them he was going to be there for vacation and wouldn’t be doing any reporting – and besides, he was a sports writer!
They then required him to get a letter from his company, the Associated Press, on company letterhead, that specifically stated that he would not be doing any reporting from China. So, he did. While he had them on the phone, he inquired whether there were any issues with his brother’s application (trying to sell me down the river with him, apparently!)
They told him they didn’t have any issues with my application. They probably don’t teach about James Madison in China. Lucky for me, since it was Madison who crafted the Bill of Rights – in which the first amendment provides for “freedom of the press.” Madison also stole the phrase “the press” from Edmund Burke, who was reportedly the first to use it to describe the media as an essential tool of a free people to “press” upon government officials for information.
My visa was ready when my brother picked it up in February. At the same time, he took them the company letter (from the AP) stating he would not be working as a journalist while on vacation in China. The officials at the consulate told him this looked fine but that they wouldn’t be able to issue him a visa until about 30 days before our trip. Being that we were not leaving until early June, he would need to come back in May. This made him feel a little nervous about getting too excited for the trip, with the thought they might possibly not grant permission.
He came back in May and they said everything looked good and they would grant him his visa, which would be ready for pick up in a few days. But then, just as had happened in February, a few hours later they called him and asked him some follow up questions. He got anxious again, but a few days later his visa was approved and ready.
However, while my visa had granted me permission to travel in and out of China over the next 12 months, his only granted him permission to travel there for a 15-day window (our trip was 12 days). I told him, “You better not miss your return flight or you might not get back!”