cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/57588706
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China’s State Council on July 31 announced the Regulations on Exit and Entry Administration. Set to take effect from Sept. 15, the regulation expands the People’s Republic of China’s powers to restrict people from leaving the country in the name of “safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests.”
International observers widely regard it as another step back to a closed China.
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Given Beijing’s insistence that Taiwan is “a part of China,” experts warn Taiwanese traveling to China of increasing risk of indefinite detainment.
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Although the new rules have not yet been officially implemented, there are affected people already voicing their complaints through various channels.
Their accounts suggest that this condition, approved by Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強), essentially serves to give a firmer legal footing to China’s restrictive exit practices that have already generated controversy.
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The details of the CCP’s new regulations reveal their [the new regulations’] arbitrariness.
Article 4 states that when a Chinese citizen contravenes export-control or technology import-export regulations in a manner that could endanger industrial or technological security, the relevant commerce authorities under the State Council may prohibit that person from leaving China.
When an exit ban concerns national security or the investigation of a criminal case, the authorities may withhold from the detained person information about the decision, Article 6 states.
Article 18 defines “immigration administration authorities” to include exit-entry administration bodies of public-security organs at or above the county level. In other words, local officials may decide whether to stop someone from leaving the country.
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Meanwhile, an Aug. 2 New York Times article entitled “How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners” delved into how Chinese police use an online “Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel” to compile information on people from Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as more than 300 foreign journalists.
Beyond basic personal information, the platform even integrates data from facial recognition systems, transportation records, medical information, hotel stays and consumer transactions, monitoring people’s movements and activities in extraordinary detail.
Taiwanese and Hong Kong residents are classified separately in the database, while people from the Five Eyes alliance — the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — are also specially marked. Foreign students, foreign spouses and those classified by Chinese authorities as “key persons” are placed under enhanced monitoring as well.
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The MAC [Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan] in a report submitted to the Legislative Yuan on July 29 said that from January 2024 to July 22 this year, 402 Taiwanese who traveled to China were reported missing, detained and questioned or had their personal liberty restricted.
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The CCP is proceeding on three fronts: law, technology and “united front” operations. Through these channels, the Chinese government is deepening its level of control over Taiwanese society.
The cost of accepting small, immediate benefits can be exorbitantly high. For the sake of one’s personal safety — and that of one’s family and friends — it is worth revisiting a classic saying from the Confucian Analects, warning against entering a “risky state.”
Taiwanese should avoid travel to high-risk China.