Spread The Word
3 Responses to "" 
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said this on 10 Dec 2008 7:52:06 AM PDT
Until recently I worked for a state government agency in the US and we used to get requests for invitation letters for Chinese government groups all the time. Usually the requests came from Chinese consultants for the groups of officials. Thinking it was a legitimate visit to our state we would send the invitation letter and then the consultant would later tell us the group had to cancel their visit to our state. Several times we found out the group did come to the US but did not visit our state. Eventually we realized this was a scam but I did not realize the consultants (travel agents?) were charging a fee to get our invitation letters. This practice has harmed the reputation of Chinese government visitors to the US.
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said this on 13 Dec 2008 1:38:09 AM PDT
I can confirm what Jay wrote from the other side of the world. I am a Western professor who has been teaching in China for several years. I have a close friend who works for a municipal government as a deputy director of the international division of the foreign affairs office. His entire job consists of finding ways to justify extravagant international trips. His boss will say to him "I want to visit Las Vegas. Make it happen." My friend must then devote weeks of his time contacting any Nevada state agency or bureau he can conjure up in order to solicit this letter of invitation. This is all he does, day in and day out, five to seven days per week: trip after trip.
These trips are nothing more than luxurious government sponsored vacations and have absolutely nothing to do with "intercultural exchange." |
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said this on 16 Dec 2008 3:34:50 PM PDT
This is a very interesting post in that I am sure it happens all the time. However, it also hits home for me during my time in Shanghai, working for a Chinese company. Because I was American, they assumed that I would be able to get invitations for some of their employees to visit California for a meeting. While the whole purpose was legitimate, I had to go to great lengths to visit the US consulate, request invitation letters and much more. What I learned was that many of the people on the trip were from certain parts of China and that this region had many people not exit the US.
I bring this up because like Jay has mentioned, the immigration ties between both countries are so strained and it will be interesting to see how both governments handle the increase in Chinese outbound tourism in the future. |
