(TibetanReview.net, Sep15’26) – China has begun implementing on Sep 15 new border-control regulations designed to keep two of its most valuable assets from leaving the country: money and talent. It also seen to target human rights and other kinds of activists, for citizens deemed to have “harmed” China’s national security or interests while overseas can also be barred from leaving the country.
The rules give authorities the power to impose exit bans of six months to three years on Chinese citizens who commit certain violations.
The rules, issued by the State Council, give authorities explicit legal power to block people from leaving the country – turning a patchwork of ad hoc travel bans into a permanent regulatory tool for stemming capital and talent flight as well as restricting the movement of activists who are in the bad book of the Party-state.
Under the new rules, authorities can bar citizens from leaving the country over export-control or technology-transfer violations deemed to threaten national security. They also add pressure on wealthy households already facing a widening tax dragnet, along with private bankers, trust companies, and immigration agencies that help move their money and families abroad, noted the cnbc.com Sep 15.
“The goal is to restrict outbound personnel flows, so as to keep home the capital and talent that might otherwise leave with them,” Neo Wang, China strategist at Evercore ISI, has said. Both resources are seen as critical to Beijing’s push for innovation, productivity and new growth drivers as it competes head-to-head with the US.
Oversight of overseas travel by party officials and state-enterprise employees has remained tightened for years while increasingly extending the scrutiny into the private sector. The new rules would make the system more “permanent and give officials more confidence to intervene,” and enable them to tighten document checks to avoid blame for lax implementation, Dan Wang, China director at political consultancy firm Eurasia Group, has said.
Technology professionals are said to face some of the strongest restrictions. Beijing has already restricted exports of key technology and components, including rare earths, electric-vehicle batteries and solar panels, and the new rules give authorities a legal basis to enforce those export-control and counter-sanctions regimes directly at the border, Guo Shan, partner at China-focused Hutong Research, has said.
The rules are already said to be changing behaviour among private bankers who help wealthy Chinese clients move money offshore. Some have been questioned at Chinese border checkpoints about the purpose of their arrivals and asked to file advance applications before arrival, the report said, citing offshore wealth management firms serving mainland Chinese clients.
The new framework also gives local authorities firmer legal ground to restrict departures by people they consider to owe tax on offshore wealth — a practice that predates the rules but now carries fresh teeth.
In July, China imposed a 20% income tax on assets moved into offshore trusts since 2023, closing a longstanding loophole used by wealthy families for asset protection and succession planning. Local authorities also reportedly started levying taxes on insurance policy income and salaries that Chinese citizens earned overseas, the report said.
Concerning officials, the aim of the new rules may be to “prevent corrupt officials from fleeing or transferring assets abroad,” while “for more senior officials, it may also be intended to prevent the disclosure of state secrets,” bbc.com Sep 15 cited a retired grassroots civil servant in Anhui Province as saying. State employees have long been required to surrender their passports and get approval for overseas travel.
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The rules could also affect citizens who work in areas such as human rights, the report cited analysts as saying. “This is another tool designed to control what Chinese citizens do and say overseas,” Professor Tom Kellogg, Executive Director of the Center for Asian Law at Georgetown University, has said.
“In some cases, in order to prevent individuals from criticising the Chinese government overseas or to punish their rights advocacy activities, state security authorities directly refuse to issue passports.”
Tibetans in Tibet have long had their passports confiscated after many of them attended teachings of the Dalai Lama during their pilgrimage in India. They were made to undergo political re-education after their return.
According to publicly available information, Chinese citizens currently cannot check whether they are subject to exit controls on their own. Unless official written or verbal notification is issued, people generally only discover they are restricted from leaving when applying for documents or attempting to depart, the report said.
“The various measures create the perception that laws may change without notice with retroactive effect, the tightening is coming from all sides,” Clifford Ng, partner at Zhong Lun Law Firm, has said. Clients with no remaining family or fortune in China are now more likely to leave for good, while those with ties still in the country are choosing to comply, the cnbc.com cited him as saying.