Their release in 2021 came hours after a US fraud case against Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou was resolved, allowing her to leave Canada, where she was under house arrest, and fly to China.
Comprehensive data on exit bans is not readily available.
A 2022 study by two academics at California Polytechnic State University found 128 cases of foreign nationals hit with exit bans between 1995 and 2019, including 29 Americans and 44 Canadians. Around a third of the bans were business-related. Many cases lacked sufficient detail to determine their nature.
During the Joe Biden administration, the State Department said it could not provide a full count of Americans under exit bans. Some cases go unreported, as affected individuals and their families fear that disclosure could hinder efforts to have the bans lifted.
When families do reach out, they typically want quiet assistance, according to Wilder: “Usually they really are very concerned about publicity because they’re business people, and they’re planning to do more business in China.”
Wilder, who was involved in the case of the Liu siblings, said such situations are typically resolved only when senior administration officials intervene. For the Liu case, Wilder said, the US government was reluctant to get involved – “partially because these are messy”.
Official discussions related to the Commerce Department employee have been held, according to the Post’s source.
Beijing’s use of exit bans has been a flashpoint in the US-China relationship.
In November, the Biden administration eased the travel warning it had placed on China after Beijing released three Americans previously under detention in an apparent prisoner swap.
While the National Security Council then noted there were no longer Americans “wrongfully detained” in China, the State Department stressed they were still subject to “arbitrary enforcement” of exit bans – a factor it cited in issuing a level 2 travel advisory, which urges Americans to “exercise increased caution”.
The advisory for China remains at level 2 today, down from level 3, which had urged Americans to “reconsider travel”.
China recorded nearly 65 million border crossings by foreign nationals in 2024, according to its National Immigration Administration.
For their part, Chinese authorities in recent years have accused the US of unfairly targeting Chinese nationals at border crossings.
This article was first published on SCMP.
