Yeah, well, it didn’t work, did it? 
The cop may have wanted to screw him over right from the beginning, but forcing him to face exactly what he was doing probably didn’t help.
Uh. it did work. oO What else did you expect to happen, the cop giving him a new passport and a cupcake? the outcome could have been a lot worse.
I’d like a cupcake.
He can keep the passport, though. 
I’m not sure where you picked up this information of bribing procedures, but in China it doesn’t work that way. Bribery is basically a way of life here and it isn’t just something that is done under the table. I mean, people bribe doctors here just so they won’t botch up procedures. There is something in chinese called a 红包 (hongbao), which is basically a red envelope filled with money that people give to newly married couples. Well, they are also used to bribe officials such as policemen. Technically, I should have just given the cop one of these, but I just thought I’d be a little more clever 'cause that’s just the way I am. And, of course, I wrapped it up in red.
Anyway, the police are powerful in China, but they aren’t powerful enough to just cancel my VISA. I was living in China on a residence permit rather than just a working permit. It’s a special permit that is nice because you don’t have to leave the country every year to get it renewed; unfortunately, unlike the working permit that you own and control yourself, the residence permit is owned by the agency of your employment. Technically, I don’t work for the agency that owns my residence permit, but I had (or so I thought) basically bribed them into just letting me keep the permit. Anyway, it could be any of a large number of people I angered at that place, and I’ll never know who, but I’m pretty sure it must be one of them. Sorry if this is vague, but like everything in this country it’s unnecessarily complicated and I’m not even sure I understand it myself. Needless to say, I’ll be coming back on a working permit.
I’m sure I missed something somewhere, but why in the hell did you go there in the first place?
There will be plenty of time later to settle down to a life of fast food, credit card debt, online dating, and constant worrying about one’s career. For now, why not do something else?
Or maybe the agency that owned your permit just had an organizational change and someone without knowledge of your situation decided there was no reason to hold onto your permit? It doesn’t sound like this had to have been something only found in chinese culture.
I thought it would have worked if you didn’t actually have to leave the country.
Its still pretty funny about wrapping it up, though
That is also possible, but it wouldn’t explain why the police suddenly came knocking on my door. Plenty of people overstay their visas here or live on improperly held visas and the police never come knocking. Thus, I can only assume somebody told them to come looking for me, likely the same person or persons that cancelled my visa.
Unfortunately, there’s no way around that. Anyone who overstays a visa must leave the country (usually to hong kong) in order to get a new visa. The bribe wasn’t for staying in the country, but just not for having to pay an exorbitant fee to get my passport back. Had I not bribed or paid the fee, from what I can gather, I would have been branded “undesirable” and not allowed to enter China for five years.
Do you frequent a bizarro Chinese version of the RPGC Agora? 
Make friends with some important guy in the goverment and eating with them once a year, then you can avoid trouble like this.
Seconded. Pics plz.
If you send me an ipod I’ll consider it a bribe and be your girlfriend for one day.
That’s standard fare, Alyx.