China's Use of Exit Bans Increasing

China's use of exit bans to stop people from leaving the country has been growing since 2012, when leader Xi Jinping first took power, and the government has continued to introduce new laws and regulations that complicate legal recourse, according to a new report.

"Anyone may be a target — human rights defenders, businesspeople, officials, and foreigners,” the rights group Safeguard Defenders said in its findings, "Trapped: China's Expanding Use of Exit Bans," reported The Washington Post.

The report, coming amid growing concerns about the overhaul of the country's espionage law, the raids on the Mintz Group and Bain & Co., and the foreign business environment in China, shows evidence that the politically targeted exit bans have grown in the past five years.

Further, Beijing has been adding more exit-ban laws since 2018, causing more confusion, the report said.

Exact statistics are not available, and China's Ministry of Public Security didn't answer questions about how many people are subject to exit bans.

The Supreme People's Court official database shows the number of times exit bans were mentioned rose dramatically between 2016 and 2020, and "even though the number of entries does not equal the number of exit bans, this dramatic jump likely mirrors a similar trend in exit bans recorded on the database (mostly civil disputes)," the report shows.

Meanwhile, foreign businesses in China have been targeted. Five local staff members were detained in March after authorities raided the Beijing office of Mintz, a U.S. due diligence company.

According to Reuters, Mintz's Singaporean executive has been unable to leave China.

Increased scrutiny on foreign companies is also raising concerns that Beijing wants to expand the divide between the international business community and China's businesses.

American chip maker Micron Technology's imports have also been put under review, and government authorities detained one employee from Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma. Staff with consulting firm Bain & Co. in Shanghai have also been questioned.

State-owned firms have also been encouraged to quit working with the largest four international accounting firms. Last month, foreign subscribers said they were cut off from Chinese knowledge and data, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the country's largest database, as well as the financial company Wind.

An overhaul of China's counterespionage law last month is also causing concerns. The law, describing espionage to include "documents, data, materials or items related to national security and interests," had already allowed for an exit ban to be used on anyone under investigation.

The revised spy law is risking investor confidence. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday said the revised spy law risked shaking investor confidence and "dramatically increases the uncertainties and risks of doing business in the People's Republic."

China Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, when asked about the Bain incident, said she was not aware of the incident, saying China is a "law-based country. All companies in China must operate in accordance with the law."

The Japanese government has warned its nationals about the law. Since 2104, at least 17 have been detained in China under allegations of spying, according to Japanese media.