China bans thousands of critics of regime from leaving the country

‘Never could I imagine that China’s authorities were capable of such inhumane cruelty’

CHINA is banning government critics from leaving the country and weaponising new laws to intimidate journalists, according to a report.

Tens of thousands are under exit bans at any one time in China, according to the rights group Safeguard Defenders, which cites a 2022 report that found 128 cases of foreigners being exit-banned from 1995 to 2019.

“Since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, China has expanded the legal landscape for exit bans and increasingly used them, sometimes outside legal justification,” the report says.

It highlights no less than five new or amended laws introduced since 2018 that provide for the use of exit bans.

The law appears to be frequently used to target human rights activists.

The strengthening of counter-espionage laws that could stop anyone under investigation, whether Chinese or foreign, leaving the country, has triggered alarm among international business.

“The uncertainty is huge,” said Jorg Wuttke, head of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

“At a time when China is proactively trying to restore business confidence to attract foreign investment, the exit bans send a very mixed signal,” the chamber said in a statement.

In 2021, activist Guo Feixiong was prevented from leaving China to visit his wife Zhang Qing, who was in the US with terminal cancer. He was banned from leaving on ill-defined national security grounds and then disappeared.

“Never could I imagine China’s authorities were capable of such inhumane cruelty – to keep him locked up when my life is coming to an end,” wrote Ms Zhang from her hospital bed.