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China Briefing | How exit bans are harming China’s push to welcome foreign business
- Beijing is rolling out the red carpet for top overseas executives to show it is open for business again
- Yet it is also expanding its ability to stop people from leaving the country – sometimes just because they are on the wrong side of a business dispute or work for the wrong people
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China’s leaders have rolled out the red carpet for prominent overseas executives and repeatedly reassured them that the country is open for business since December, when Beijing lifted tight Covid-19 restrictions which closed the world’s second-largest economy for almost three years. The latest example is that the state media has given rock-star treatment to the visit by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
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The news coverage of their visits will no doubt encourage other entrepreneurs and investors to resume travel to the mainland as they try to make sense of the country’s politically charged investment climate amid rising tensions between China and the United States.
But, in conversation with Hong Kong-based executives in the past few months, I found some have begun to voice misgivings about something which would have sounded absurd even a few years ago: is it safe to travel to the mainland, and will they be barred from leaving the country?
The ominous-sounding Chinese phrase bian kong, or exit bans, now often enters the table talk among the executives, particularly after some wine loosens their tongues. The phrase refers to a policy tool increasingly being used by the authorities to prevent people from leaving the country amid suspicions or accusations of wrongdoing or simply because they are on the wrong side of a business dispute or work for the wrong people.
As I dug deeper into the issue, almost all executives I spoke to have had a story to tell on exit bans, either about their own unpleasant experiences or their business friends being banned from leaving.
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Here is a true story that will put the implications of exit bans into context as it shows that the policy is arbitrarily applied and violates international laws and human rights. Moreover, it has also become a sticking point in talks between Beijing and Washington as several US passport holders, along with other foreign executives, have been ensnared by exit bans.
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