China raises limits on bankers & govt employees overseas travel

• China raises limits on bankers’ & govt employees’ overseas travel.
• The individuals who shared this information worked in various capacities.
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• They chose to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Chinese civil servants and employees of state-linked enterprises are facing more stringent restrictions on personal travel abroad and increased scrutiny of their foreign connections as part of Beijing’s campaign against foreign influence.

This information is based on official notices and insights from over a dozen individuals familiar with the situation.

According to ten current and former employees, these constraints have expanded since 2021. They now include bans on overseas travel, stricter limits on the frequency and duration of trips, more rigorous approval processes, and mandatory pre-departure confidentiality training. Notably, these measures are unrelated to COVID-19.

The individuals who shared this information worked in various capacities as civil servants, in state-owned enterprises, or within the public sector in China. They chose to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter.

In addition to these personal accounts, eight public announcements from government entities over the past two years, indicating that they were strengthening rules regarding workers’ personal trips abroad, without providing all the specific changes.

There is also evidence of a parallel effort by Chinese central and local authorities to map the personal and family connections of government and state-linked workers to other countries.

These measures, as well as the extent of some travel restrictions following the COVID-19 pandemic, are being reported for the first time.

Experts suggest that these actions align with President Xi Jinping’s emphasis on national security, particularly in the context of strained relations with Western countries. China has recently encouraged its citizens to engage in anti-espionage activities and has introduced new laws that broaden the definition of spying.

Neil Thomas, a fellow of Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis in Washington, explained that Beijing’s concerns are related to the threat of espionage by Western nations.

Preventing government employees from traveling abroad could reduce opportunities for foreign powers to engage in espionage. Additionally, Xi’s political ideology plays a role, as he seeks inspiration from within China rather than the West.

These restrictions on personal foreign travel, which traditionally applied to senior government officials and state executives with access to confidential information, are now extending to lower-level civil servants and state-enterprise workers.

It’s worth noting that China had around 7 million civil servants and 70 million state-enterprise workers, according to the most recent data from 2015.

Lower-level employees at China Construction Bank in Beijing and Shanghai can now only travel abroad for personal reasons once a year, and their trips are limited to a maximum of 12 days.

Public school teachers are also facing new restrictions on overseas trips, and even at a large branch of state policy lender China Development Bank, overseas trips have been banned this year.

These changes have been indicated in official notices, such as directives from government units and publicly available documents that emphasize stricter vetting of employees’ requests for personal trips abroad.

Chinese authorities are scrutinizing personal foreign ties, collecting information about relatives with foreign nationality or overseas permanent residence and details of foreign assistance or experience in a related effort.

Authorities began issuing questionnaires for this purpose around late last year, as reported by individuals who received them.

This data was collected by bodies like the Communist Youth League, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC), local authorities, and employers. The exact use of this data remains unclear.

These measures align with China’s recent focus on countering foreign influence. The country has increased public messaging about the risks of foreign recruitment and espionage.

The Ministry of State Security identified a Chinese national in Italy suspected of spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and warned of potential Chinese recruitment abroad for instance, in August. The CIA did not provide a response to Reuters’ request for comment.

Experts believe that these travel restrictions could have implications for China’s engagement with the world, as less exposure to foreign countries could limit the Chinese officials’ ability to learn from other governments and understand how China is perceived globally.

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