For Western businesses to do business in or with the People's Republic of China, there is always a cost.
Besides the ethical cost, which is not always obvious to well-meaning business people,
there is also a business cost and a real risk.
This year, Chinese lawmakers passed a wide-ranging update to Beijing’s anti-espionage legislation,
banning the transfer of any information related to national security.
The new legislation is broadening the definition of spying without giving very precise boundaries
of what might or might not constitute a crime in the eyes of the communist regime. [2]
These hardening of the legislation is putting Western business people into real danger of being randomly accused of spying.
The US State Department is telling Americans to reconsider traveling to China due to the risk of wrongful detention. [3]
The US State Department website includes resources for families of wrongful detainees. [4]
Reconsider travel due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws,
including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions.
Summary: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government arbitrarily enforces local laws,
including issuing exit bans on U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries, without fair and transparent process under the law.
The Department of State has determined the risk of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals by the PRC government exists in the PRC.
U.S. citizens traveling or residing in the PRC may be detained
without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime. U.S. citizens in the PRC
may be subjected to interrogations and detention without fair and transparent treatment under the law.
Foreigners in the PRC, including but not limited to businesspeople, former foreign-government personnel, academics, relatives of PRC citizens
involved in legal disputes, and journalists have been interrogated and detained by PRC officials
for alleged violations of PRC national security laws.
The PRC has also interrogated, detained, and expelled U.S. citizens living and working in the PRC.
PRC authorities appear to have broad discretion to deem a wide range of documents, data, statistics, or materials as state secrets
and to detain and prosecute foreign nationals for alleged espionage.
There is increased official scrutiny of U.S. and third-country firms, such as professional service and due diligence companies,
operating in the PRC. Security personnel could detain U.S. citizens or subject them to prosecution for conducting research
or accessing publicly available material inside the PRC.
Security personnel could detain and/or deport U.S. citizens
for sending private electronic messages critical of the PRC, Hong Kong SAR, or Macau SAR governments.
In addition, the PRC government has used restrictions on travel or departure from the PRC, or so-called exit bans, to:
- compel individuals to participate in PRC government investigations;
- pressure family members of the restricted individual to return to the PRC from abroad;
- resolve civil disputes in favor of PRC citizens; and
- gain bargaining leverage over foreign governments.
