China's Grip Tightens 🇨🇳 ⚠️: Freedom Lost?

EXPANDING STATE CONTROL: NEW BORDER REGULATIONS
Chinese government announced new border regulations in late July in a move seen as expanding state control over its citizens. The new rules, which come into effect on September 15, tighten checks on travellers and provide new grounds for restricting Chinese citizens from leaving the country, including exit bans of up to three years in some cases. Issued on: 18/08/2026 - 08:00 In a document published on July 31, China's State Council announced that, in order to “preserve national sovereignty and interests”, border control officials could require travellers to provide additional information and documents about their reasons for travelling. Those who provide false documents or statements could be prohibited from entering or leaving the country.

CRITICAL RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL
Chinese nationals who have “acquired travel documents by deceit” or have been involved in “exiting or entering the country illegally” could face an exit ban of between six months and three years in addition to existing punishments, according to the new rules. The ban can also apply to citizens who have “participated in illegal activities” or “threatened national security and interests” while abroad. The new articles also state that Chinese citizens can be prohibited from leaving the country if they “violate” regulations on the import and export of technology, and if these violations endanger China’s “industrial or technological security”.

RECENT CASE: MANUS AI ACQUISITION BLOCK
In March, Beijing imposed a travel ban on two co-founders of Manus, a Chinese AI company that Meta had planned to acquire for $2 billion. China blocked the acquisition plan in April, and the Financial Times reported that the ban is soon to be lifted. into force. Meanwhile, analysts have warned that the regulations could formalise and expand existing exit restrictions.

WARNINGS AND CALLS TO ACTION
In a post on X that was widely quoted by Chinese-language media, Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University, called for people in China to "leave while you still can". “These regulations represent another major step in transforming the right to leave China into a privilege granted at the discretion of the state,” he wrote. “What changes is the level of specificity,” they said, adding that border officers now have "express authority" to review whether a traveller's stated purpose for leaving the country is "truthful”.

LIMITED APPEAL PROCESSES
For individuals barred from leaving, the practical avenues for challenging the decision may be limited. Citing Article 6, Gao said authorities can prohibit individuals from leaving the country on national security grounds without providing detailed reasons, making such decisions difficult to challenge. appeal, in some cases authorities can decline to notify the individual in question where doing so could affect national security or a criminal investigation. As a result, individuals may not learn they are subject to an exit ban until they attempt to leave the country. “The person has nothing to appeal against and no record that the state ever acted.”

EXPANDED ENFORCEMENT LEVERAGE
While the new regulations are primarily aimed at controlling who can enter and leave China, experts say they could also strengthen Beijing’s ability to exert pressure on Chinese nationals over activities carried out abroad. Noting the potential for human rights abuses, Nye and Sun warned that individuals participating in advocacy activities abroad, where those activities are legal, could nevertheless face sanction when they return to China, as could their families. “This is less a dramatic expansion of legal jurisdiction in principle than a notable expansion of enforcement leverage and extraterritorial pressure in practice,” Gao said. “Beijing has spent the past decade extending the reach of its own law in order to extend its influence and protect party-state interests, and this is one more concrete instance of the long-arm jurisdiction it has been testing,” Nye and Sun noted.

FOREIGN NATIONAL RISKS
The regulations also contain provisions affecting foreign nationals, although the risks for them are different from those facing Chinese citizens. Article 5 states that foreign nationals could be barred from entering China for between one and five years if they provide false information or statements when applying for a visa or seeking entry at the border. Analysts say those who face particular risks include foreign nationals who were formerly Chinese citizens, as Beijing does not recognise dual nationality.

CASE STUDY: CHEN YOULIN’S ARREST
US seismologist Chen Youlin, a naturalised US citizen, is facing espionage charges after travelling to Beijing to visit family in November 2024. “China is not a country governed by the rule of law, the rules are abstract and open to interpretation,” MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng told a press conference earlier this month. “If they (the Chinese government) ban you from leaving, then you’re not leaving.”

STUCK CITIZENS: THE TAIWANESE SITUATION
According to MAC figures, as of August 14, a total of 416 Taiwanese citizens remain stuck in China, including 226 who have been detained, 156 who are missing and 34 who are being questioned. China's new border rules reflect a broader contradiction within the country, some analysts say.

SHIFTS IN REGIME TRUST
As China's economic and military power has grown, so too has the government’s concern over security and control. Gao said the new rules were notable not simply because they give border officials greater discretion, but because they apply that discretion to Chinese citizens seeking to leave the country. While border authorities in many countries have powers to restrict entry, restrictions on citizens leaving their own country are generally reserved for specific legal circumstances and are typically accompanied by clearer grounds and avenues for judicial review.

REVERSAL OF PRIOR RESTRICTIONS
Li Shaomin, a sociologist and professor at Old Dominion University, noted in a post on X that during the Mao era, travelling abroad was largely reserved for people trusted by the state. Today the situation has been reversed, with those closest to the regime often facing the greatest restrictions on their ability to travel. “Not only is there a lack of trust in the general public, but there is an even greater lack of trust in its own [party] officials – in the very people it has promoted,” he wrote.

THE TENSION BETWEEN OPENNESS AND CONTROL
Beijing does not want to return to the complete isolation of the Mao era but instead seeks a more selective form of openness, according to Li: “An open economy but with people under heavy control.”