Importing communist material

[maoriboy]

Hey the newbie got a stupid question,

I was wanting to know more about the restriction on importing communist material in particular books into Taiwan. I am coming over soon and I wanted to bring some books with me that talk a lot about communist china. They mainly focus on the Mao era. They are mainly for the purpose of postgrad study with SOAS and are written in English. What about other things like my Che poster?


Is it ok to bring stuff like this over

advice welcome

H

[Mucha Man]

No problem. This is a free country.

You will find a lot of Che t-shirts these days on college students.

Besides, they never check foreigners bags at the airport anyways.

[almas john]

Che will be fine going through customs but it would be best to keep him away from some Forumosans who have had a few bottles. There are some Vietnam vets here who have taken a few commie scalps and are prone to nam flashbacks when they they see Castro's Argentinian amigo.

[london-boy]

Besides, they never check foreigners bags at the airport anyways.

They certainly do. Rarely, perhaps, After many years without a problem I got checked earlier this year. Before I even reached the desk it was obvious they wanted me. A uniformed guy beckoned me and there was a young female official next to him. She spoke very nice English and was very polite. She asked for my passport and scanned it very carefully under UV. She then asked me to confirm that it was my passport. She said she only wanted to look at one of my suitcases. (I had two, plus hand baggage.) She went through the chosen suitcase very carefully. Everything except clothing was x-rayed individually, some of it more than once. Where possible pots were unsealed and sniffed. I had two new tubes of toothpaste. She wanted to know exactly where I'd bought them and x-rayed them from different directions. She asked if it was OK to open a bag of coffee (I had several). She sniffed it and then stuck a probe in it. Then suddenly she was satisfied. Offered to help me repack, I said no need. She apologised for keeping me and it was all over.

Both my suitcases were EVA priority tagged. One appeared on the carousel almost right away with all the other priority stuff. Unusually the second one was rather delayed, coming out 20 minutes later. That was the one customs were interested in. I think they had scanned/dog sniffed it when it was unloaded and decided it needed to be opened.

Last year I saw an "English teacher type" stopped at customs. They were examining the books he was bringing through. Weird - I wondered if they were looking for copied books. They were only checking his book and setting some to one side. But I was through before I saw the outcome.

[Eiger John]

So, did they find the communist material in your coffee?

[sandman]

No problem. This is a free country.

I dunno about that. I bet they'd have something to say if you were bringing in, say a battalion of PLA heavy infantry.

[Chaon]

If the government were that afraid of communist propaganda, they'd kick Vorkosigan out.

[the chief]

Remember buddy was busted muleing in buttloads of E and meth and stuff a while back, wasn't some of it in hollowed out English texts??
Or was that Crapple Daily bullshit?

[jimipresley]

Remember buddy was busted muleing in buttloads of E and meth and stuff a while back, wasn't some of it in hollowed out English texts??
Or was that Crapple Daily bullshit?

I think the schmuck actually had it mailed to himself. I may be wrong.

[Dragonbones]

History books that discuss communist China are fine. I've never heard of anyone having had anything like that confiscated. Just don't even think about bringing any illicit drugs.