BEIJING — China has imposed new rules restricting citizens' travel in and out of the country, expanding the state's power to enforce exit bans.
Under the regulations, which went into effect this month, authorities can bar citizens from departing for six months to three years after they return if deemed to have harmed China's national security or interests while overseas. The restrictions also apply to individuals considered threats to the nation's industrial or technological security, sectors Beijing closely monitors during intensifying competition with Washington over semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
Border officials must also advise Chinese nationals against traveling to countries and regions designated as "high-risk" by the government.
Travel restrictions on specific groups predate the new rules. In March, the co-founders of Manus, an AI company later acquired by Meta, were reportedly prohibited from leaving China. Civil servants were among the first subjected to these controls, which later expanded to state-owned enterprise employees and ordinary citizens.
A retired grassroots civil servant in Anhui province told BBC Chinese that his workplace required employees to surrender their passports around 2018. His passport remains with his former employer despite his retirement last year. He said employees had to seek approval for overseas travel and provide reasons for trips, with requests to visit relatives more frequently approved than those for tourism.
He indicated the measures aim primarily to prevent corrupt officials from fleeing China or transferring assets abroad. For senior officials, the controls may also prevent disclosure of state secrets.
Xiao Wang, a 32-year-old employee at a state-owned financial institution in Beijing who spoke under a pseudonym, said his colleagues have long been required to surrender passports and obtain approval for international travel. Managers have verbally cautioned staff that "sensitive countries such as Japan are definitely off-limits."
Professor Tom Kellogg, executive director of the Center for Asian Law at Georgetown University, called the expanding travel restrictions "deeply concerning." He told BBC Chinese the measures reflect "growing ideological control under Xi Jinping," drawing parallels to the Mao era, when China was largely isolated from the world. International travel became common for Chinese citizens only in the 1990s following national reforms and opening-up policies. Kellogg said today's restrictions evoke "memories of that painful era."
Piyao, a Chinese government platform dedicated to refuting rumors, released a statement last week denying that the new rules signify a return to "biguan suoguo," a historical term meaning isolationist policies. Human Rights Watch stated the decree expands administrative authorities' discretion to arbitrarily bar people from leaving, violating the internationally protected right to leave a country.
