U.S. Advisory Urges Citizens to Reconsider Travel to China Amidst Arbitrary Law Enforcement and Exit Bans

The U.S. government is encouraging its citizens to reassess their plans to travel to China, in light of arbitrary law enforcement, exit restrictions, and the potential risk of unjust detentions.

While no specific incidents were mentioned, this recommendation comes in the aftermath of a 78-year-old U.S. citizen who received a life sentence for spying allegations in May. This development is on the heels of the newly enacted Foreign Relations Law last week, which stipulates potential countermeasures against entities perceived as threatening Chinese interests.

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Moreover, China has recently adopted a comprehensive counterespionage law that has heightened anxieties among the foreign business community. There have been instances of office raids and laws enacted to sanction foreign critics.

The U.S. advisory warned that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government implements local laws arbitrarily, inclusive of imposing exit bans on U.S. citizens and individuals of other nationalities, with no clear and equitable legal process.

U.S. citizens visiting or living in the PRC may face detention without any access to U.S. consular services or information regarding their alleged offenses. The advisory also indicated that PRC authorities can broadly classify various documents, data, statistics, or materials as state secrets and can detain and prosecute foreign nationals on allegations of espionage.

A wide range of potential offenses, from participating in protests to electronically sharing critical comments about Chinese policies or merely conducting research into areas deemed sensitive, were highlighted.

Exit restrictions may be used to force individuals into cooperating with Chinese government investigations, pressuring family members to return from overseas, settling civil disputes favoring Chinese citizens, or to “increase bargaining power over foreign governments,” stated the advisory.

Hong Kong and Macao, the semi-autonomous Chinese regions, were also issued similar advisories. The advisories were dated last Friday and sent to journalists on the following Monday.

While the U.S. has previously issued similar warnings, recent ones have primarily cautioned about the risks of being trapped in extensive lockdowns due to China’s border closure for three years as part of its severe “zero-COVID” policy.

China typically reacts with hostility to what it views as attempts by the U.S. to discredit its authoritarian Communist Party-led governance. It has responded with its own travel advisories for the U.S., highlighting concerns about crime, anti-Asian discrimination, and exorbitant costs of emergency medical aid.

Information regarding the allegations against accused spy John Shing-Wan Leung remains undisclosed, due to China’s authoritarian political system and the Communist Party’s total control over legal affairs. Leung, who also has permanent residency in Hong Kong, was arrested in Suzhou on April 15, 2021, during the peak of China’s COVID-19 related movement restrictions.

These warnings surface amidst the lowest point in U.S.-China relations in recent years, strained over trade, technology, Taiwan, and human rights. However, there have been attempts to ameliorate the situation. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid a delayed visit to Beijing last week, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is slated to visit Beijing this week. China has also recently appointed a new ambassador to Washington, who recently met President Joe Biden at the White House.

Alongside multiple Americans, two Chinese-Australians, Cheng Lei, a former employee of China’s state broadcaster, and author Yang Jun, have been detained since 2020 and 2019 respectively with no update on their sentences.

One of the most infamous cases of arbitrary detention involved Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, arrested in China in 2018, shortly after Canada apprehended Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies’ CFO and the founder’s daughter, at the request of the U.S. for extradition. They were detained for national security crimes that were never clarified and released three years later after the U.S. settled fraud charges against Meng. This incident was widely condemned by many nations as “hostage politics”.

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More about travel advisory

• U.S. Department of State – China Travel Advisory
• CNN – US warns citizens to reconsider travel to China amid arbitrary law enforcement
• Reuters – U.S. warns citizens about travel to China over arbitrary law enforcement