WASHINGTON: China has stopped an American citizen who works for the US Commerce Department from leaving the nation for several months, according to media reports - an episode that coincides with Beijing and Washington trying to arrange a leaders’ summit so they can address their differences on trade.
The Chinese-American individual who works for the Patent and Trademark Office had traveled to meet relatives, the Washington Post reported, citing four people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing the sensitive issue.
The US sent a very high-level message to Beijing to let the man depart, the newspaper added, citing one person. It said it didn’t know the name of the man facing a so-called exit ban, which was put in place over an apparent failure to disclose on a visa application that he worked for the US government.
Officials from Beijing and Washington - including in the Commerce Department - are negotiating a trade deal after President Donald Trump hit goods from China with heavy tariffs that he later paused. Trump also wants a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to sort through their problems, which touch on technology curbs, rare earths and the status of Taiwan.
To get the sitdown and a trade pact, Trump has recently softened his harsh campaign rhetoric that focused on the US’s massive trade deficit with China and resulting job losses. Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after meeting his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, that there was "a strong desire on both sides” for a Xi-Trump meeting.
The outlook for such a meeting could be complicated if the episode involving the employee of the US Commerce Department escalates. The incident is somewhat magnified because Wells Fargo & Co. recently suspended travel to the world’s second-biggest economy after one of its top trade financing bankers was blocked from leaving.
"These cases in combination are significant and will have a chilling effect on US business travel to China,” said Jeremy Chan, a senior analyst on the China and Northeast Asia team at Eurasia Group, who once worked as a diplomat in China and Japan. "Given that Trump’s team is reportedly planning to bring a group of CEOs along with him for his summit with Xi later this year, these reports may complicate that effort or make US business executives less willing to participate.”
The Commerce Department employee, a veteran of the US army, was detained when he arrived in the southwestern city of Chengdu in April, the South China Morning Post reported Sunday, citing a person familiar with the situation.
He was being prevented from leaving China because his case was "related to actions Beijing deemed harmful to national security,” the newspaper reported, though the specifics couldn’t be confirmed. Since the man arrived in Chengdu, he had also traveled to the Chinese capital with a US official, the newspaper reported.
The Patent and Trademark Office the man works for handles US patents and registers trademarks. It says on its website that its "mission is to drive US innovation and global competitiveness.”
A spokesperson US Embassy in Beijing said that its "highest priority is the safety and security of US citizens overseas.” It added that "we track these cases closely, and have raised our concern with Chinese authorities about the impact these arbitrary exit bans have on our bilateral relations and urged them to immediately allow impacted US citizens to return home.”
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing didn’t respond to a request for comment.
China’s use of exit bans has been a point of contention between Beijing and Washington in recent years. The US State Department has repeatedly advised citizens to reconsider travel to China based on what it called the "arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans.”
The move by Wells Fargo came after Chenyue Mao, an Atlanta-based managing director for the bank who was born in Shanghai, was banned from departing after entering China in recent weeks, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
The case underscores multinational companies’ fears about the risks of operating in China, especially in regard to staff safety and restrictions on movement.
Among notable incidents in recent years, the Wall Street Journal in 2023 reported a senior executive at US risk advisory firm Kroll was prevented from leaving China. In 2019, Bloomberg reported that a UBS Group AG wealth manager was detained for about three months before returning home.
An academic analysis published in 2022, based on data from six governments, found 128 cases of foreign citizens facing Chinese exit bans, with at least a third of the cases driven by business disputes.
Chinese law prohibits people suspected of crimes from leaving the country. Chinese citizens judged to have endangered national security can also face exit bans under the country’s recently updated espionage law. - Bloomberg
