The State Department is warning Americans about traveling to China. Don’t do it. If you do, beware. There is a risk of “wrongful detention.”
This is a new travel warning issued by the State Department, not one that had been previously issued and is being used as a reminder during the summer travel season. This is to make Americans aware that there is selective enforcement of local laws resulting in the risk of wrongful detentions.
“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 State Department says.
“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,” it added, noting that “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 State Department said in its travel advisory that “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.”
It also says Americans should exercise increased caution when traveling to Hong Kong and reconsider travel to Macau due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws there as well.
It’s not the time to mark China off your bucket list. Or Hong Kong and Macau, apparently.
The State Department is also warning Americans about so-called “exit bans” which restrict a traveler from leaving China. Beijing uses those bans to coerce people into cooperating in government investigations, pressure family members to return to China from abroad, or to gain leverage over foreign governments in bargaining. It sounds a lot like Russia right now, doesn’t it? Both China and Russia are trying to get a leg up on the United States on the world stage. With the demented old man in the White House and his weak and inept State Department, all of this is probably information for American tourists and business people to have.
China (and Russia) are testing the Biden administration. They see the weaknesses. Recently Secretary of State Tony Blinken was humiliated during an official visit because Biden called Xi a dictator and that made press reports. Joe Biden is only getting worse about controlling what comes out of his mouth. It’s not cute, or endearing, it’s dangerous to national security. He is the president – the days of brushing off his inappropriate remarks by saying, “That’s just Joe” are over. He isn’t just one of 100 senators. He’s The Big Guy.
The State Department points to the case of John Shing-Wan Leung. He is a 78-year-old American citizen who also holds permanent residency in Hong Kong. He was detained in April 2021 by the local bureau of China’s counterintelligence agency in Suzhou, a city in southeastern China. Details of the charges against him have not been publicly released. Two months ago he was sentenced to life in prison on spying charges.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing told the AP that it is aware of the case but cannot comment further because of privacy concerns. “The Department of State has no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” the embassy said in an email.
We get that statement every time something happens to an American citizen overseas. Unfortunately for that American citizen, Joe Biden and his State Department are not as successful in dealing with bad actors as the previous administration proved to itself to be. The previous administration brought American citizens home and sometimes didn’t even publicize the success. The truth is that though Joe Biden likes to pump himself up as big and bad on the world stage, he’s laughed at and is not well-respected. He doesn’t lead, he follows.
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