Chinese Americans should think twice before traveling to China

OPINION:

On July 22, China’s State Council published new regulations on exit and entry, to take effect on Sept. 15.

On the surface, the regulations look like a routine administrative document. But read alongside recent cases of forced detention and restricted movement, they become part of a much larger picture that Chinese Americans should watch closely.

Article 4 states that if a Chinese citizen’s conduct “may endanger national industrial security or technological security,” the Chinese authorities “may decide to prohibit that person from leaving the country.” Notice the discretionary language.

If the state sees you as a technological asset or a security threat, it can bar you from exiting, even with a valid passport and even after you’ve passed the national security screening required to obtain one in the first place.

The regulation does not require a conviction, indictment or even a formal investigation. Suspicion, as defined by the state, is enough.

Given Beijing’s ongoing rivalry with Washington over semiconductors and other strategic technologies, that discretion lands most heavily on Chinese-born scientists, engineers and researchers.

The rule doubles as a brain-drain safeguard, a way to keep skilled personnel in place rather than stop a single trip. A routine family visit could become the moment a career (and a passport) gets frozen in place.

Article 6 is even more troubling. Authorities must generally notify a person of an exit ban and its legal basis, but that requirement disappears when disclosure “may affect national security, the investigation of a criminal case, or other similar circumstances.” In those cases, “the person need not be notified.”

In short, if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) doesn’t want you to leave, it doesn’t have to tell you why. In fact, it does not have to tell you at all.

It also doesn’t matter whether you’re a citizen or not. These rules should be read together with recent cases of Beijing restricting movement for foreign nationals. Chinese-language sources reported that a Japanese national visiting family in China was informed he could not leave and that his Chinese citizenship had been “restored,” effective immediately.

Neither Japan nor China recognizes dual citizenship, and naturalized Japanese citizens must formally renounce their prior citizenship, which this man had done years earlier. Authorities nonetheless made him record a video declaring he was “no longer a Japanese citizen.”

The message was unmistakable: Paperwork does not settle who Beijing considers its own.

China has long restricted freedom of movement. The hukou household registration system makes it difficult for citizens to relocate domestically, and Uyghurs and Tibetans are routinely denied passports altogether.

Ask a Han Chinese person about these restrictions, and many will say it’s a minority issue, not theirs. To paraphrase the World War II-era warning: When they came for the Uyghurs, I said nothing, because I wasn’t Uyghur.

Now, even a valid passport guarantees nothing. The exit-ban regulations extend a tool once reserved for ethnic minorities and political dissidents to the entire population, including foreigners. In practice, travelers already learn that they are barred from leaving only when turned away at the boarding gate. The new rules simply give that practice legal cover.

For the United States, the implications are direct. Every Chinese American should think twice before traveling to China, since Beijing treats ethnic Chinese as its property regardless of citizenship. American citizenship offers little protection once you’re on Chinese soil.

Washington has struggled before to help citizens the CCP claims as its own, as in the case of Australian journalist Cheng Lei, detained for three years on vague national security grounds before being released. These regulations give Beijing a formal legal basis for that action, codifying what used to operate in a gray zone.

As Washington and Beijing spar over export controls and the flow of advanced technology, the new legal framework gives Chinese authorities a ready-made lever over the very people caught in the middle of that fight.

The U.S. government should take note. The State Department’s travel guidance for China must be updated to reflect that China is not a country where the basic rights and freedoms of Americans — especially those of Chinese descent — are guaranteed.

Consular officials should also be prepared to advise Chinese-American families on the risks before they book a trip, not after a relative has already been barred from boarding a flight home.

• Stan Kwiatkowski, PhD, is a political commentator and host of the YouTube channels “Hard News” and “Freedom Is Not Free.”