Last time I was in China, my 'building got in trouble.'  As a lodger, I noticed this because I got a note saying they needed my passport for a day and instructing me to drop it off at the lobby.

I did not wish to give up my passport.  As a compromise a van load of cops, and a box of about 100 passports, and me made our way to the police station.  I gave my passport to a lady in the front room of the station.  She copied something off it by hand and handed it back.  The cops too the box of remaining passports into the back room and kindly gave me a lift back to my point of beginning (and didn't even beat me up!)

Thankfully there is no corruption in China and the people are to unsophisticated to do anything with electronic hardware so there was no danger to the passports.

It's a bad idea to let go control of one's passport.  All the travel literature says so.  The trouble is that it is relatively easy for authorities (and others) to make that become the most rational thing to do.  It's also a marvelously stupid idea to give someone the password to one's on-line bank account yet enough people will do it so that Coinbase offers it as a 'service'.


BTW, you know who doesn't fuck with the cops?  The Chinese!  The reaction from my friends when I told them I had to go to the police station was a half a second of wide-eyed terror.  It was similar to the reaction of the round-table participants at the 2013 San Jose conference when it sunk in that the audience question guy was talking about mixing private keys (which I found telling about the methods of blockchain analysis that are likely underway or being contemplated.)