China Approves Law Hardening Control on Travel abroad

The rules, which come into force today, formalize restrictions that have been gradually imposed on travel abroad by middle and upper-level civil servants, Chinese Communist Party (CPC) cadres and state-owned business workers, according to analysts.

The measures will also cover citizens working in the private sector in sensitive areas. Anyone who violates the new rules may face high fines and bans on leaving the country between three months and an indefinite period.

According to analysts, legislation represents an approximation to restrictions on travel abroad that have existed for decades in the Mao Zedong era and that have only been fully flexible with China's opening to international trade.

“ The result could be a gradual return to a model prior to the 1990s in which international travel is treated less as an individual right and more as a privilege subject to administrative approval,” said Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University, quoted by the British Financial Times.

“ In addition to restricting circulation, this approach helps to keep both people and capital more firmly within the control sphere of the State Party,” he added.

Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang signed the decree in July. The Executive said at the time that the rules standardized the procedures for entry and exit from the country and aimed to “save national sovereignty, security and development interests”.

The new rules come at a time when Beijing is creating a network of legislation to counter foreign sanctions and compete with the United States for technological leadership.

The authorities have strengthened travel restrictions, especially of civil servants, but also of workers from other sectors.

In one of the most prominent recent cases, Xiao Hong, executive president of the Manus artificial intelligence platform, and other members of the board were banned from leaving the country due to the sale of the ‘start-up’ to the North American technological group Meta.

The new rules “represent one of the most significant administrative regulations in the area of entry and exit management” of the country in more than a decade, according to DLA Piper.

“ Violations of export controls are now explicitly linked to exit bans,” he added.

Article 4 of the State Council Regulation on the Administration of Inputs and Outflows provides that, where a Chinese citizen “violates export controls or rules on the import and export of technology in a way that could endanger national industrial or technological security”, government bodies may “prohibit it from leaving the country”.

The rules do not specifically mention the private sector, but they give authorities “a clearer way to impose exit bans on people working in private companies, including technology executives and researchers,” said Dai Menghao, a commercial compliance expert at the law firm King & Wood, quoted by FT.

“The expression ‘may endanger’ also gives the authorities a considerable margin of discretion,” he added.

Article 10 also encourages private immigration agencies, a previously prosperous sector in which intermediaries help families to apply for residence abroad, to report “public, military or other individuals” who seek to travel out of the country “in violation of rules”.

Gao considered that even when the authorities do not formally prohibit a trip, the possibility of an application being rejected may encourage self-censorship and lead people to give up applying for authorisation.

Those responsible for authorising workers' journeys may also become more reluctant to approve requests. In China, civil servants are often required to hand over passports to employers and request their return when they want to travel.