Chinese authorities imposed new restrictions on foreign travel in order to stop cutting-edge technology and top-flight researchers from leaving, taking a step closer to a regime that had characterized a more closed-off China of decades past.
Though senior civil servants and executives at state-owned enterprises have long faced limits on their international travel, the latest rules — announced in July to target export-control and tech-sales violations — apply to a broader swathe of private citizens and lower-level officials working in sensitive areas; those who break the rules face exit bans. “Beyond restricting movement, this approach helps keep both people and capital more firmly within the party-state’s sphere of control,” one leading expert told the Financial Times.