Chinese anti-corruption officials refused entry to Finland

Prosecutors presented forged letters of invitation

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The Finnish Guard has refused entry to a group of high-ranking Chinese officials who tried to enter the country with the help of a forged letter of invitation. The group arrived in Finland on Monday this week. After spending the night in guard facilities at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, they flew back to China on Tuesday.
      The group comprised ten officials of the Chinese prosecution service and anti-corruption section. The group, aged 44 to 58, was led by the Deputy Head Prosecutor of the Anhui region.
      "Their visas had been granted under false pretexts. The act is made all the more serious by the fact that forged letters of invitation had been used to try to gain entry at Helsinki-Vantaa", says Janne Piironen, head of the Helsinki border inspection section.
      The group also had visas to Sweden, and a genuine invitation from a Swedish law office.
      The sham invitation was written in the name of the Finnish Ministry of Justice. In it, the members of the group were mentioned individually by name and birth date, and were invited to acquaint themselves with the Finnish prosecution service.
     
The Ministry of Justice has said that no such invitation was ever sent, and that nobody with the name of the man whose signature appears on the document works at the ministry.
      According to the invitation, the group was to have spent six days in Finland, visiting the Ministry of Justice, the Helsinki Prosecution Service, and the University of Helsinki.
      "None of these visits would really have taken place", Piironen says.
      Officials do not know who had drawn up the forged invitation, and where it had been produced.
     
The border Guard determined, on the basis of the group’s travel reservations, that the Chinese were planning to spend 11 days in Europe.
      "They were not going to be in Finland for a single day. Their planned itinerary was Shanghai – Helsinki – Frankfurt – Lebehn – Berlin – Hamburg – Copenhagen – Gothenburg – Oslo – Stockholm – Helsinki – Shanghai.
      Piironen believes that the men intended to make a tourist trip under the guise of business travel. Finnish border officials say that Chinese have been doing this sort of thing for some time now.
      The idea is for government officials and businesspeople to first acquire funding for a trip, then a visa for work-related travel, after which possible meetings at the destination are cancelled, and the working visit turns into a subsidised European holiday.
      "It seems strange that civil servants at this level will operate like this. In my view it cannot be understood as a mere cultural difference, when someone uses a criminally forged invitation", Piironen comments.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  COMMENTARY: Chinese citizens and visas - not by the book (14.11.2006)
  Chinese refused entry for visas acquired under false premises (14.11.2006)
  Border Guard concerned about increased direct flights between Finland and China (15.2.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat