The escalation of stability maintenance by the Chinese Communist Party continues. In Shenzhen, a landlord was fined 500 yuan because a friend stayed temporarily without reporting to the authorities. After the news came to light, mainland netizens exclaimed, “What era is this?” Other netizens also noted that even going back to their hometowns now involves visits from grid personnel questioning them.
According to the mainland media Southern Metropolis Daily reported on July 12th, a netizen in Shenzhen posted on a social platform on July 10th, stating, “A friend came to Shenzhen to find a job and stayed at my place for a few days. Forgot to report to the landlord and was fined 500 yuan.” The reporter found that the incident occurred in Longhua District, Shenzhen. The fine mentioned in the post was imposed on Mr. Li, the landlord who failed to promptly report the residential information to the community grid management.
Mr. Li told the media that on the evening of July 7th, community police officers and grid workers visited his rented property and found that there were other individuals living in the house rented to Mr. Jiang without the proper registration of their personal information.
Li explained that the friend staying temporarily was a tenant, “By the time I found out, he had already been living there for over ten days, and I happened to be out, which led to me not completing the reporting on time, hence the workers said they would penalize me.”
According to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Residence Permit Regulations, if a landlord fails to report or falsely reports information about non-Shenzhen residents staying in their property, they will be fined 500 yuan per person involved. For rentals done by the hour or day, the landlord must report residential information immediately. For rentals not based on hourly or daily rates, they have to report within seven days of the residents’ move-in or departure.
Many mainland netizens expressed surprise at this fine and related regulations:
“Freedom has become a luxury.”
“The landlord is really wronged!”
“Shameless, what era is this? Local, non-local, once you’re there, you’re a local.”
“The ‘grid department,’ we are all just fish in the net. Asking the fishermen for fairness?”
“Is this news from this century?”
“What kind of era is this that such things still exist? Temporary residence permits have been abolished for many years, and this is happening in Shenzhen of all places.”
“So this is it, nothing has changed.”
“Yes, I found out the other day, even going back to the hometown requires reporting. What’s the point of such detailed registration?”
“Recently, grid personnel went to each household asking if there were any visitors for the summer break. I said I’ll only go back to the hometown, why come here in this scorching heat?”
“The invention of Shang Yang is still in use.”
“I don’t know if Guangzhou imposes fines, but recently grid personnel have been going house to house asking if there were any visitors for the summer break.”
“This is the first time I’ve paid attention to the fact that reporting is required even for friends who come to stay temporarily in rented accommodations, or else face penalties. Is this kind of management regulation meaningful?”
It is currently unknown whether the trends in Shenzhen are related to the upcoming 20th Third Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party, scheduled to begin in Beijing on July 15th. However, various local governments in China have been escalating stability maintenance measures in recent times, initiating security procedures. A large number of petitioners have been flooding into Beijing to express their grievances to the government, but local governments have long since initiated “interception” operations to detain individuals.
According to a report by Voice of America on July 12th, dissident Ah Meng, who had participated in the “White Hair Movement,” left Wuhan on the eve of June 4th and is currently staying in Kunming. However, in recent weeks, national security personnel and local police stations have been closely monitoring and persuading Ah Meng as if dealing with a thief, even using economic incentives to entice him to return home.
A friend of Ah Meng’s in Beijing described the current situation as having “strict vigilance within the barbed wire, with dark clouds looming.” Rental houses in the second and third ring roads of Beijing have been thoroughly inspected by officials, with strict traffic controls in place.
About five years ago, the Chinese Communist Party had “stability informants” at the grassroots level, while the concept of “grid personnel” became well known since the outbreak of the CCP virus (COVID-19) in 2020, engaging in activities like nucleic acid sampling, vaccine promotion, and transporting residents to makeshift hospitals, with stability maintenance functions.
Recently, the Chinese Communist Party’s community worker teams have significantly expanded, fully monitoring people’s lives. Mr. Han, a community worker in Qingdao, Shandong, revealed to Voice of America that community workers are an “advanced version” of grid personnel. People with a long-term stay abroad visiting residents’ homes are also a key focus of community workers.
Controlled by the newly established Central Department of Social Work last year, the network of Chinese Communist Party community workers is under its supervision. Wu Zuolai, a scholar familiar with the CCP’s system in the United States, once analyzed to the Epoch Times that the Central Department of Social Work manipulates a big network used to control society.