US adds China to list of countries where Americans face elevated risk of wrongful detention
- State Department advisory follows executive order by President Joe Biden aimed at punishing state actors including Russia, Iran and North Korea
- Citing ‘extraordinary threat’, designation confers authority to impose travel and financial sanctions when US nationals are unjustly held
Declaring a national emergency over the “extraordinary threat” that wrongful detention and hostage-taking posed to US interests, the executive order includes the authority to punish foreign entities with travel and financial sanctions in cases where they are deemed to have unjustly held US nationals.
“We will continue to be relentless in our efforts to reunite Americans who are held hostage or wrongfully detained with their loved ones,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Following the executive order, the State Department’s travel advisory for China was updated to urge travellers to “exercise increased caution due to wrongful detention”. It warned that relatives of those under investigation by Chinese authorities were at risk of exit bans.
