Chinese citizens could now be banned from leaving China for up to three years for criminal activities that endanger national security
China’s ministry of justice, ministry of public security and national immigration administration said the rules address risks including citizens being “deceived into going abroad”, cross-border gambling and telecom fraud, as well as the “illegal transfer of technology abroad”. The authorities said the measures are aimed at strengthening exit-entry management and preventing risks to China’s industrial and technological security. China’s new exit-entry rules have come into force, expanding the grounds on which citizens can be barred from leaving the country. The rules allow exit bans of up to three years in cases involving national security, national interests and potential threats to industrial or technological security.
A retired grassroots civil servant in Anhui said his workplace began requiring employees to surrender their passports around 2018, with overseas trips subject to approval. China’s Supreme People’s Court database contained just 89 records mentioning exit bans in 2016, but that number had risen to 188,760 in 2025. The share of civil verdicts involving exit bans also increased from about 0.23 percent in 2019 to 7.3 percent in 2025.
BBC reported that travel restrictions had already been imposed on some executives in these industries.
Under article 4, this includes people who engage in criminal activity overseas that harms China’s national security or interests, as well as those who violate export-control or technology-import/export rules in ways that could threaten “national industrial security” or “technological security”. The restrictions were already affecting civil servants and state-owned enterprise employees before the new rules came into force, according to BBC. The scale of China’s exit restrictions has also increased sharply in recent years, according to data provided to BBC by rights group Safeguard Defenders.
The regulation also gives authorities the power to impose exit bans of six months to three years on Chinese citizens who commit certain violations. The move comes amid heightened scrutiny of China’s strategic technology sectors, including semiconductors and artificial intelligence, as Beijing and Washington compete for technological dominance. In March, the co-founders of Manus, an AI company acquired by Meta, were reportedly barred from leaving China. Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.