No Exit: China’s Growing Use of Exit Bans Violates International Law
Elmat: Like hotel California: You can checkout any time you like but you ca never leave
In November last year, the New York Times broke the sad story of Victor and Cynthia Liu, American citizens who entered China in June 2018, and have since been barred from leaving the country. Although they have not been detained, they are being blocked from leaving China under a so-called “exit ban,” a tool increasingly used by Chinese authorities to increase leverage over individuals accused of wrongdoing, or who merely have found themselves on the wrong side of a business dispute.
Their case is part of an emerging—and quite troubling—pattern of official Chinese efforts to use foreign nationals as bargaining chips in disputes with other parties, including private individuals, overseas companies, or even other countries.
China’s Tactic to Catch a Fugitive Official: Hold His Two American Children
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Victor and Cynthia Liu, American citizens who have been banned from exiting China, in an image provided by family friends.CreditCredit-
By Edward Wong and Michael Forsythe
Nov. 25, 2018
WASHINGTON — When Victor and Cynthia Liu landed with their mother on a tropical Chinese island in June to visit an ailing grandfather, they thought they would soon be on a plane back to their East Coast lives — he to start his sophomore year at Georgetown University, and she to work at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York.
Instead, within days, police officers detained their mother, Sandra Han, who, like her children, is an American citizen. They moved her to a secret site, commonly known as a black jail. The children discovered at the airport that they could not leave China, even though the police had said they were not being investigated or charged with a crime, the children told American officials and family associates.
nytimes.com |
