US Signals Tougher Move To Bar CCP Members

The U-S is taking a tougher stance against the Chinese Communist Party. A policy alert bans members of the communist party from getting an immigrant visa. Last Friday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a policy alert about banning members of the communist party from getting an immigrant visa. The alert reads: “In general, unless otherwise exempt, any intending immigrant who is a member or affiliate of the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate), domestic or foreign, is inadmissible to the United States.” The policy alert is not new. It is based on laws passed by the U.S. Congress between World War I and the 1950s, but it suggests that the Trump administration may take tougher action to enforce them. The law provides exemptions for aliens whose membership or affiliation was involuntary, or “for purposes of obtaining employment, food rations, or other essentials of living and where necessary for such purposes.” The law provides another exemption where aliens must have terminated their membership at least five years before the date of the application, and had “actively opposed the doctrine and ideology”. On Saturday, one day after the policy alert had been issued, the number of people searching in Google "quit party" in Mandarin Chinese, surged by 100 times more than before the alert. Reportedly, the U.S. authorities may have already tightened restrictions. Two weeks ago, U.S. customs officials denied entry to a Chinese national at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and sent him back to China. The man held a 10-year travel visa at the time, and was not given a reason for his refusal. His travel visa was later canceled. The individual retained his CCP membership for fear of affecting his pension benefits. He was also earlier denied an immigration visa to the U.S. The man's lawyer in the U.S. believes that he was denied entry due to his status as a member of the CCP, and advised him to quit the party before re-applying. As the largest communist party in the world, the 90 million members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are expected to be affected. However, a book that details the repressive history of the CCP was published in Chinese in 2004. The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party launched a massive movement to quit the party and its affiliated organizations. According to data published by a New York-based non-profit Global Tuidang Center, over 360 million Chinese have quit the CCP and its two related organizations, the Communist Youth League of China and Young Pioneers of China. Most used a nickname or pseudonym. The center issues a certificate to those who have quit the Party as proof of their denunciation of the organization. According to the center, the certificates are widely accepted by the U.S. immigration agency.