Fewer Chinese coming to Finland on false invitations

High-ranking Chinese prosecutor lost job over trip to Finland

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Fewer Chinese civil servants and businesspeople are using forged invitations in order to have a European holiday in the guise of business travel.
      "The phenomenon still exists, but it is receding", says Auvo Niemi, the China liaison of the Finnish Border Guard.
      Last autumn Niemi said that he expected the practice to increase.
     
Numerous Chinese officials and businesspeople have tried to get into Finland on the basis of false information in recent years. Those who are refused entry into Finland have usually had a valid visa.
      The Finnish Border Guard says that Chinese officials have forged invitations, or agreed with Finnish companies or state offices on an official visit.
      When the visa is granted, and travel money is paid out, they have cancelled the meetings and gone on a tourist visit.
     
The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday that the Chinese Communist Party had demoted the deputy head prosecutor of Anhui Province over a trip to Finland.
      The Communist Party noted that the man had wasted public money when his group of ten people tried to get into Finland in November at government expense on the basis of forged invitations.
      The group comprised officials of the Chinese prosecution service and the anti-corruption department.
     
The group was refused entry into Finland because officials here recognised the invitation as a forgery. The invitation had been sent in the name of the Finnish Ministry of Justice, but the person whose signature appeared on the invitation did not work there.
      Xinhua characterised the event as a scandal.
      Auvo Niemi says that it is the first case that he knows of in which a Chinese official would have been punished in such a manner over a trip to Finland.
     
The head of the Helsinki Border Inspection Unit, Janne Piironen, says that there have been some cases recently, in which Chinese have had both genuine, and forged invitations for the same trip.
      "It seems a bit strange, because they would get the visas in any case", Piironen says.
      In these kinds of situations, the Chinese may have tried use the invitations to establish a travel itinerary, and to try to get more travel money from their employers.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Chinese anti-corruption officials refused entry to Finland (23.11.2006)
  Chinese refused entry for visas acquired under false premises (14.11.2006)
  COMMENTARY: Chinese citizens and visas - not by the book (14.11.2006)
  Border Guard concerned about increased direct flights between Finland and China (15.2.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat