alien i wersn't being serios. but feed the zenophobe fits. think about it, you are a local and read this story in the press. do you think it could affect your view of the big nose next door. espically if you have low edu. look at the toxic environment in uk now with brexit and the attitues of the the great unwashed

I'm failing to see the issue. If I was reported they'd knock on the door, I'd show them I my docs and they'd say If I was legal or not. If I was we'd bid each other a good evening and that would be that.

It's only the people with things to hide that try to hide. 99% of the people who walk past you in the street could give two who you are or why you're here. The other 1% can't touch you if your ducks are in a row.

Is this just the victim wagon rolling through town again?

A job for the Street Committee.
From personal experience.
When my Chinese fiance and I stayed in Shanghai, the first time, we borrowed a friends apartment. It was in a working class neighbourhood and the building caretaker/janitor was an unpleasant surly little man with an attitude. I think he was also head of the Street Committee (lowest level of the Communist Party organisation).

We encountered a few racist comments in that neighbourhood. Including questions like, 'why is a nice girl like you with the white guy?'.
The janitor reported us to the police, because I had not registered in 24 hours, and because we were not married. We had a knock on the door at 9pm with three police officers then asking questions and going through both of our papers. They did not care that we were not married (although illegal at the time to stay together), but told us we had to register the next day.

If you think that you do not have nosy neighbours, or nationalists, living in your xiaoqu, you are deluded.
In many areas you will still have the local 'Street Committee'. It is only in the last few years that they lost executive powers. For some of the old guard I think this still rankles. In the past, if you wanted to get married, you needed permission from your Street Committee, or your employer. I think this only ended about 6 or 7 years ago.
It would probably be the Street Committee who would meddle in your affairs, they have a government mandate to do this. I agree that most of your other neighbours would not care that much.

Addendum
Chongqing (until recently part of Sichuan ) was the base for Bo Xilai, who during his tenure started the Red Culture Movement en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_culture_movement. This was a bit scary to say the least. It shows just how easily tapping into old sentiments was, and no doubt still is, especially amongst certain segments of society.

So the counter argument is: Make an exception for me I'm from Britain/ America/ France, I'm different.
Plenty of ridiculous laws to follow, most with a bundle of paperwork and hassle attached to them - just follow them and spend the rest of your time here without looking over your shoulder and worrying about knocks on the door. No?
I spend a day or two dealing with it once every blue moon, then toss it out my mind.

You didn't register and someone has the nerve to knock on your door and ask you to.
You're not qualified to be here and someone refuses your visa.

Terrible. Hold on; I'll get the violin.

@ Tiger: May indeed be the responsibility of the street committee to make sure residents register with the cops, in both Shanghai and Kunming. And things may have changed: over 10 years ago, when I first moved to Kunming, I didn't bother to register for a good 8-9 months and nobody bothered me to do so. Despite this, during my first 3 months I took a trip for about a month and forgot to shut off the water before I left, which leaked into the flat downstairs. When I came back the downstairs neighbor wasn't happy. I apologized profusely and she said well, okay. I got the water problem fixed and that was that.
Then a friend explained to me that if somebody broke into my flat and I called the cops they would not have to do anything, so since then I've been registering on time.

Once water leaked into my kitchen from the guy upstairs. I told him about it, he fixed it, and we were all good.

I have known foreigners here who have not registered and have been called on to do so - perhaps their neighbors, or local street committee, are the ones who mentioned it to the cops.
Anyway, it's no hassle and it's illegal not to register, and if you register, you're covered.
I have never once been hassled by neighbors here for anything. In over 10 years a cop came to my flat exactly once, after I had registered, to see my passport. This was at least 5 years ago. I showed it to him and that was it.

vamwe vanhu chete vane musoro yavo mbongoro dzavo uye hachisi ingwe murume

..

Incredible.

alien, confirms idea that people will get involved if asked to snoop on big nose