Travel Advisory from US Dept of State

[joyridin]

The warning from last year was just a Level 1. This year, it has been upped to a Level 2.

 

If you use Skype, Facetime, or some other type of program to converse with relatives in China and you have a habit of talking about China's politics, you might want to invest in a VPN and have it on during your conversations. If you use WeChat, well good luck!

Edited January 15, 2019 by joyridin (see edit history)

[Randy W]

The warning from last year was just a Level 1. This year, it has been upped to a Level 2.

 

If you use Skype, Facetime, or some other type of program to converse with relatives in China and you have a habit of talking about China's politics, you might want to invest in a VPN and have it on during your conversations. If you use WeChat, well good luck!

 

 

The headline from the Dept. of State in Jan., 2018 was posted in the first post of this thread in Jan., 2018 - it was Level 2. I did not consider it news at the time (it seemed just business as normal), but after I saw that it was picked up by several news organizations, I posted about it to try to clarify the news.

 

Level 1 - Exercise Normal Precautions: This is the lowest advisory level for safety and security risk.

 

 

• Level 1 — Blue – Exercise Normal Precautions
• Level 2 — Yellow – Exercise Increased Caution
• Level 3 — Orange – Reconsider Travel
• Level 4 — Red – Do Not Travel

 

The "Level n" warnings were apparently begun at that time worldwide - https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-01-11/state-department-rolls-out-revamped-travel-warning-system

[griz326]

...wonder if the arrest of Huawei exec Meng Wanzhou has anything to do with this. ???

 

I'm preparing to return to China this summer so I'm paying attention.

[Randy W]

...wonder if the arrest of Huawei exec Meng Wanzhou has anything to do with this. ???

 

I'm preparing to return to China this summer so I'm paying attention.

 

 

It's simply a routine renewal of the Level 2 alert from last year (Jan., 2018) - I don't see why China would EVER have anything else, but yes - the tensions ARE a little higher these days, especially if you're Canadian.

[Randy W]

 

The news behind the news (although this ongoing incident occurred in June) - from the NY Times

 

 

China’s Tactic to Catch a Fugitive Official: Hold His Two American Children

 

 

 

 

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.

 

By holding the family hostage, they said, the police are trying to force the siblings’ father to return to China to face criminal charges. The father, Liu Changming, a former executive at a state-owned bank, is accused of being a central player in a $1.4 billion fraud case.

 

The children say their father severed ties with the family in 2012, but the Chinese authorities have still held them for months under a practice known as an exit ban — a growing tactic that has become the latest flash point in the increasingly rancorous relationship between the United States and China.

 

. . .

 

“The investigative officers have made abundantly clear that neither my brother nor I am under any form of investigation,” Ms. Liu, 27, wrote to Mr. Bolton in an August letter obtained by The New York Times. “We are being held here as a crude form of human collateral to induce someone with whom I have no contact to return to China for reasons with which I am entirely unfamiliar.”

 

. . .

 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry defended the holding of the three family members, saying: “The people you mentioned all own legal and valid identity documents as Chinese citizens. Because they are suspected of economic crimes, they are restricted from exiting the country by the Chinese police in accordance with the law.”

 

. . .

 

Liu Changming, 53, the father, is among China’s most-wanted fugitives, accused of helping to carry out one of the country’s biggest bank frauds, in which $1.4 billion in illegal loans was issued to property developers. He fled the country in 2007.

 

 

 

 

These two are still in the news - still under the exit ban - from the SCMP

 

American siblings Victor and Cynthia Liu, barred from leaving China, are trapped, alone and ‘desperate to come home’

• Pair are among several foreign citizens who are currently being held by Chinese authorities

the parents

 

This undated photo released by Chongyi Feng shows Yang Hengjun and his wife Yuan Xiaoliang. Photo: Chongyi Feng via AP

 

 

The State Department has warned Americans about China’s growing use of exit bans – stating in a January 3 travel advisory that Chinese authorities have sometimes used exit bans to keep Americans in China for years.

“China uses exit bans coercively,” the State Department cautioned, “to compel US citizens to participate in Chinese government investigations, to lure individuals back to China from abroad, and to aid Chinese authorities in resolving civil disputes in favour of Chinese parties.”

 

. . .

 

But authorities are increasingly using the tactic to harass Americans and other foreign nationals, particularly those of Chinese descent, he said.

 

[Randy W]

The kids are finally going home

from the NY Times
In late 2018, President Donald J. Trump had raised the issue of Mr. and Ms. Liu’s release at a summit in Argentina with President Xi Jinping of China, and Mr. Xi had agreed to let them leave, said Mr. Medeiros, who was involved in efforts to release the siblings. But on the day the summit ended, Ms. Meng was taken into custody in Canada, and the agreement was off.

See CFL topic - US reaches deal with Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou, allowing her to return to China

American Siblings Barred From Leaving China for 3 Years Return to U.S.

Their release coincided with an agreement on Friday that cleared the way for a senior executive of Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications giant, to return to China.

Quote

 

The release of Victor Liu, a student at Georgetown University, and Cynthia Liu, a consultant at McKinsey & Company, was the latest in a series of moves that appeared intended to de-escalate tensions between the United States and China after the Huawei deal. The two had never been accused of wrongdoing but were subject to an “exit ban” preventing them from leaving China.

Their release over the weekend coincided with an agreement on Friday to release the executive, Meng Wanzhou, who spent nearly three years out on bail at her two luxurious homes in Vancouver as the United States sought her extradition in a fraud case related to Huawei’s sale of telecommunications equipment to Iran.

 . . .

The Justice Department said in a statement on Monday that it did not cut a deal with Ms. Meng in response to the detention of Canadian and U.S. citizens. “The Justice Department reached the decision to offer a deferred prosecution agreement with Ms. Meng independently, based on the facts and the law, and an assessment of litigation risk,” Anthony Coley, a Justice Department spokesman, said in a statement.

 . . .

While the Biden administration said there was no deal tying the resolution of Ms. Meng’s case to the release of the siblings, their prolonged detention in China appeared to be related to Ms. Meng’s arrest in December 2018, said Evan Medeiros, a professor at Georgetown University who was senior Asia director at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama.

In late 2018, President Donald J. Trump had raised the issue of Mr. and Ms. Liu’s release at a summit in Argentina with President Xi Jinping of China, and Mr. Xi had agreed to let them leave, said Mr. Medeiros, who was involved in efforts to release the siblings. But on the day the summit ended, Ms. Meng was taken into custody in Canada, and the agreement was off.

“There appears to have been a de facto linkage for China,” Mr. Medeiros said in a telephone interview.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)