Chinese authorities are limiting state employees’ overseas travel as part of a larger effort to tighten control over government workers.
Some teachers, doctors, local officials, and government contractors have had to hand over their passports, The New York Times reported, while others who studied abroad have found themselves disqualified from some government jobs.
The rules reflect Beijing’s growing skepticism toward “everything related to foreign countries,” one expert said, as well as a push to enforce discipline and ideological loyalty.
Officials also recently banned alcohol and gourmet meals at state events; the frugality campaign is so strict that investors worry it could have wide economic impacts by dampening consumption.