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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 07, 2004

US urged again to stop fingerprinting Chinese citizens

China urged the United States again Wednesday to lift a "discriminative" fingerprinting requirement on Chinese citizens who are applying for visa to the United States.


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China urged the United States again Wednesday to lift a "discriminative" fingerprinting requirement on Chinese citizens who are applying for visa to the United States.

The US embassy and consulates in China kicked off the procedure since March 22. US officials said that this practice was targeted at most visa applicants from the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, and excluded Canada and 27 countries in Europe.

"China regards that as an unfair practice," said He Yafei, director of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs under the Foreign Ministry.

"We understand that practice was aimed at prevent terrorism, but no one terrorist was from nor entered the United States via China," the official said.

China has asked the US side to cancel the procedure but the US side did not make change. "That's why China adopted counter measures to the procedure," He said.

"We hope that the US side could lift the discriminative requirement for the general situation of Sino-US friendship," the director said at a news briefing on US Vice President Dick Cheney's China visit next week.

The United States said on April 2 that it will begin to fingerprint and photograph all foreign visitors, including those from close US allies, as from the end of September.


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