The potential of unlawful detentions, arbitrary law enforcement, and exit restrictions led the U.S. to advise Americans against visiting China.
Although no specific cases were mentioned, the caution came after a 78-year-old American citizen was given a life sentence for espionage in May.
It also came after a broad Foreign Relations Law that threatens retaliation against anyone viewed as endangering China’s interests was passed last week.
Along with a regulation to punish foreign opponents, China recently passed a broadly worded counterespionage law that has shaken the international business world and resulted in office raids.
The U.S. warning stated that “the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government arbitrarily implements local laws, include issuing exit bans to citizens of the United States and other nations, without fair and transparent procedure under the law.”
“U.S. citizens traveling or residing in the PRC may be imprisoned without access to U.S. consular services or details about their alleged crime,” the statement cautioned.
The alert also stated that Chinese officials “appear to have broad discretion to declare a wide range of documents, information, data, or material as state secrets and to imprison and charge foreign nationals for alleged espionage.”
It listed a wide range of possible violations, including participating in protests, sending electronic messages that were critical of Chinese authorities, or even just doing research into topics that were deemed sensitive.
Exit bans may be employed to compel people to take part in investigations by the Chinese government, to coerce family members to return from abroad, to settle legal issues in favor of Chinese residents, and to “gain bargaining leverage over foreign governments,” the warning stated.
Hong Kong and Macao, two semi-autonomous Chinese areas, received similar warnings. They were sent by email to journalists on Monday and were dated Friday.
Similar warnings were previously given by the U.S. to its people, but more recently they mostly focused on the risks of getting trapped in lengthy lockdowns while China closed its borders for three years as part of its draconian “zero-COVID” policy.
China typically retaliates furiously in response to what it perceives as American attempts to cast doubt on its authoritarian Communist Party-led system. It has released its own travel recommendations for the United States, cautioning against the risks of crime, anti-Asian prejudice, and the high expense of emergency medical care.
On Monday, China didn’t immediately respond to the travel advice.
Given China’s authoritarian political system and the ruling Communist Party’s exclusive control over the court system, specifics of the accusations against the alleged spy John Shing-Wan Leung are not known. Leung, who is also a permanent resident of Hong Kong, was arrested on April 15, 2021, in the city of Suzhou in the country’s southeast. At that time, China had closed its borders and severely limited internal travel to stem the spread of COVID-19.
The warnings come at a time when US-China ties are at an all-time low due to disagreements over trade, technology, Taiwan, and human rights, while both countries are making modest efforts to mend fences. Last week, long-delayed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid a visit to Beijing, and this week, eagerly awaited Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will also be there. Additionally, China just appointed a new ambassador to Washington, D.C., who met with President Joe Biden at the White House to give his credentials.
But other occurrences have also highlighted how tense the relationship is. Days after Blinken’s visit, Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator,” prompting China to formally protest.
Biden dismissed the complaint, asserting that his remarks would not harm relations between the United States and China and that he still plans to meet with Xi shortly. By publicly stating that the United States would defend Taiwan’s independence from China, which claims the island as its own territory, Biden has also angered Beijing.
Biden declared that he “just isn’t going to change very much” from making direct remarks about China.
China is one of the few subjects on which the majority of Democrats and Republicans agree, and the administration is under pressure from both parties to adopt a firm stance on the country.
Along with a number of Americans in custody, two Chinese-Australians, writer Yang Jun and former state broadcaster Cheng Lei, have been held till 2020 and 2019 respectively lacking any word on their punishment.
Perhaps the most well-known instance of arbitrary arrest involved two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were taken into custody in China in 2018, not long after Canada had detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer and founder’s daughter of Huawei Technologies, as a result of a request from the United States for her extradition.
Three years after the U.S. settled fraud charges against Meng, they were charged with offenses involving national security but never given an explanation. Several nations referred to China’s actions as “hostage politics.”