>China is increasing its use of “exit bans”, ensnaring Chinese nationals and foreigners alike and deepening concerns about business travel to the country, according to experts and affected individuals.
>This month, Wells Fargo halted work travel to China after authorities prevented a high-profile American banker from leaving the country. Just days later, it emerged that a US commerce department employee had been blocked from leaving as well.
>There is no complete record available of exit bans, but data from China’s supreme people’s court, which captures a portion of the bans issued by the judiciary, shows the number of individuals facing travel restrictions has grown every year since 2018.
>John Kamm of The Dui Hua Foundation, which tracks Chinese travel restrictions, attributed the rising cases to increasing tensions between Beijing and Donald Trump’s Washington. US and Chinese negotiators are meeting in Stockholm this week for talks to ease tariffs.
>“There is not a single explanation for the wide range of exit ban cases. It’s a growing problem,” said Kamm. He said he was aware of between 30 and 40 US citizens unable to leave China, but added that figure was almost certainly an underestimate.
>Exit bans are often imposed without explanation, leaving victims navigating an opaque and often hostile system with little guidance or recourse. Many people only discover they have been targeted by a ban when trying to leave the country, Kamm added.
>[…]
>An investor who was also stopped at the airport said his heart began to pound. “I desperately searched my memory for anything I could possibly have done wrong,” he said. “I was consumed with dread. Each day felt like a year.”
>Both individuals, who asked not to be named, said it took months to lift the bans, which were related to cases in which they were tangentially involved. The investor said his case stemmed from a financial dispute at a Chinese company of which he was a director.
>Nearly all of the 53,000 court-ordered exit bans issued last year involved civil cases, the data from China’s supreme court showed.
>In the recent case of the US banker, China’s finance ministry said Chenyue Mao, a top trade finance banker at Wells Fargo, was “involved in a criminal case”, without elaborating.
>Wells Fargo’s China operations are limited, but Mao, a US citizen based in Atlanta, had over a decade-long career helped build up the group’s international factoring business, a service that allows domestic exporters to sell overseas account receivables at a slight discount for immediate cash.
>Several import-export company executives said her team was well-known in China. “Wells Fargo helps Chinese companies going global with things like factoring and supply chain financing — they’re pretty strong in this area,” said one Chinese partner of the bank. Mao was elected chair of FCI, a factoring and trade finance association, at the end of June.
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Archived version: [https://archive.fo/1XlSG](https://archive.fo/1XlSG).
>China is increasing its use of “exit bans”, ensnaring Chinese nationals and foreigners alike and deepening concerns about business travel to the country, according to experts and affected individuals.
>This month, Wells Fargo halted work travel to China after authorities prevented a high-profile American banker from leaving the country. Just days later, it emerged that a US commerce department employee had been blocked from leaving as well.
>There is no complete record available of exit bans, but data from China’s supreme people’s court, which captures a portion of the bans issued by the judiciary, shows the number of individuals facing travel restrictions has grown every year since 2018.
>John Kamm of The Dui Hua Foundation, which tracks Chinese travel restrictions, attributed the rising cases to increasing tensions between Beijing and Donald Trump’s Washington. US and Chinese negotiators are meeting in Stockholm this week for talks to ease tariffs.
>“There is not a single explanation for the wide range of exit ban cases. It’s a growing problem,” said Kamm. He said he was aware of between 30 and 40 US citizens unable to leave China, but added that figure was almost certainly an underestimate.
>Exit bans are often imposed without explanation, leaving victims navigating an opaque and often hostile system with little guidance or recourse. Many people only discover they have been targeted by a ban when trying to leave the country, Kamm added.
>[…]
>An investor who was also stopped at the airport said his heart began to pound. “I desperately searched my memory for anything I could possibly have done wrong,” he said. “I was consumed with dread. Each day felt like a year.”
>Both individuals, who asked not to be named, said it took months to lift the bans, which were related to cases in which they were tangentially involved. The investor said his case stemmed from a financial dispute at a Chinese company of which he was a director.
>Nearly all of the 53,000 court-ordered exit bans issued last year involved civil cases, the data from China’s supreme court showed.
>In the recent case of the US banker, China’s finance ministry said Chenyue Mao, a top trade finance banker at Wells Fargo, was “involved in a criminal case”, without elaborating.
>Wells Fargo’s China operations are limited, but Mao, a US citizen based in Atlanta, had over a decade-long career helped build up the group’s international factoring business, a service that allows domestic exporters to sell overseas account receivables at a slight discount for immediate cash.
>Several import-export company executives said her team was well-known in China. “Wells Fargo helps Chinese companies going global with things like factoring and supply chain financing — they’re pretty strong in this area,” said one Chinese partner of the bank. Mao was elected chair of FCI, a factoring and trade finance association, at the end of June.