DISTURBING: US government worker trapped in China as dozens of Americans can’t escape country

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Dozens of American citizens are reportedly being barred from leaving China, including an employee with the U.S. Department of Commerce, and a Wells Fargo bank employee, under the country’s “exit ban” policy.

From the New York Times: Chinese intelligence officers began tracking an employee of the U.S. Commerce Department this spring, when he was in southwest China and where he has family members, at one point interrogating him about his prior service in the U.S. military, according to a U.S. government document.

The man, who is an American citizen, has been prevented from leaving China since mid-April, according to the document, a State Department cable that was obtained by The New York Times.

The cable, from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, was dated May 2 and sent to officials in Washington, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House aides on the National Security Council.

On April 14, the Chinese officers seized the man’s passport, credit card, cellphone and iPad while he was in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, the cable said. The officers, who worked for the Ministry of State Security, China’s main intelligence and counterintelligence agency, returned the passport on April 22 but told the American he could not leave the country. His wife is in the United States.

The unidentified man was reportedly visiting relatives in Chengdu, and is now not allowed to leave the country.

In early May, a senior U.S. diplomat and a diplomatic security officer went to Chengdu to meet with the Commerce Department staffer being held in China. He told them that the Chinese officers who grilled him were “focused heavily” on his background in the U.S. military, rather than his work for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a unit in the Commerce Department.

The two US diplomats who went to try to resolve the situation said they were under surveillance by Chinese officials the entire time they were there.

Dozens of other American citizens are reportedly being prohibited from leaving China, including Mao Chenyue, a Wells Fargo banker who is also a U.S. citizen.

The New York Times explains that China has been using the shady “exit ban” practice for years.

The targets are often but not always ethnic Chinese, and many are former citizens of China. Some have been involved in business disputes in the country.

In recent years, Chinese intelligence and security officials have been given greater power to scrutinize and detain foreign citizens and their Chinese associates in hunts for so-called subversive elements.

The Wall Street Journal published a report on July 17 about the Wells Fargo banker being banned from leaving China. The report reads:

A U.S.-based Wells Fargo banker who works in trade financing has been blocked from leaving China after traveling there recently, people familiar with the matter said.

Chenyue Mao, a Shanghai-born and Atlanta-based managing director at Wells Fargo, was subjected to an exit ban after she entered China sometime in recent weeks, according to the people. An automated reply from her corporate email account said she was traveling internationally on business.

The reason for her travel to China couldn’t be determined.

Mao attended an industry conference in Brazil in late June, according to a news release from the event. It couldn’t be determined precisely when Mao entered China, or what prompted the travel restriction. Wells Fargo has suspended all travel to China following Mao’s exit ban, the people said.

READ MORE from the New York Times.

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