(New York) \u2013 A new\u00a0Chinese government decree expands the discretion of administrative authorities to arbitrarily bar people from leaving China, violating the internationally protected right to leave a country, Human Rights Watch said today. The State Council\u2019s 19-article\u00a0Regulations on Exit-Entry Administration, known as Decree No. 841, took effect on September 15, 2026.
The new decree restricts nationals and non-nationals from leaving China for a range of ill-defined reasons of national security and risk. However, under international human rights law, any legal restrictions on leaving a country must be necessary and proportionate for legitimate aims.
\u201cThe Chinese government is tightening its rules to decide arbitrarily who can and cannot leave China, violating the internationally protected right to leave one\u2019s country,\u201d said\u00a0Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe authorities have increasingly subjected human rights defenders and ethnic minorities to restrictions and scrutiny of their international travel, but everyone including foreigners should worry about their ability to leave China.\u201d
Many provisions of Decree No. 841 consolidate exit restrictions in China\u2019s\u00a0Exit and Entry Administration Law, the\u00a0Passport Law, and\u00a0other regulations. Article 12(5) of the Exit and Entry Administration Law, for instance, broadly allows the authorities to prohibit citizens who \u201cmay endanger national security or interests\u201d from leaving the country.
However, the new decree appears to further integrate immigration decisions with a tightening national security regulatory framework.
Article 2 of the decree authorizes immigration authorities, \u201cwhen necessary,\u201d to \u201cdissuade\u201d citizens from traveling to \u201chigh-risk\u201d countries or regions when processing travel document applications or at border controls. The decree does not define the criteria for \u201chigh-risk\u201d or the standard for when dissuasion becomes \u201cnecessary,\u201d leaving decisions to relevant departments\u2019 discretion. Article 3 states that anyone applying to leave China must show that their reasons are \u201ctruthful and lawful,\u201d without defining \u201clawful\u201d travel purposes or specifying what evidence is sufficient.
The decree also broadens the grounds for exit bans and, in some cases, allows authorities to withhold notice entirely, violating due process rights. Article 4 gives administrative authorities the power to bar citizens from leaving the country for up to three years if they engage in unspecified \u201cillegal or criminal activities abroad endangering national security or interests.\u201d
Article 6 states that people barred from leaving China must ordinarily be notified \u201cin writing of the facts, reasons, legal basis, and available remedies for the ban,\u201d but allows authorities to withhold notice \u201cif disclosure may affect national security or criminal investigations.\u201d The decree also prohibits exit-entry intermediary services, such as immigration advisers, from engaging in vaguely defined \u201cacts that endanger national security or interests.\u201d
In addition, article 4 allows administrative authorities to bar nationals from leaving the country when they \u201cviolate export control, technology import and export administration\u2026in a manner that may endanger national industrial or technological security.\u201d An\u00a0official explanation of the new rules says that this is to combat \u201cillegal transfer of technology abroad.\u201d In March 2026, Chinese authorities\u00a0banned the co-founders of Chinese AI startup Manus from leaving the country, then blocked its acquisition by Facebook.
Article 5 also permits the authorities to bar foreigners from leaving the country if they are blacklisted on \u201cthe countermeasures list, unreliable entity list, [or] malicious entity list\u201d for having \u201cendangered China\u2019s national sovereignty\u201d and other vaguely defined actions.
Chinese authorities have also issued exit bans on specific foreign nationals without justification. In July 2025, the government\u00a0blocked a US federal employee and a Wells Fargo bank executive from leaving China, though neither had been charged with a criminal offense.
Chinese citizens\u2014except those from Xinjiang and Tibetan areas\u2014had largely been able to travel abroad more easily since 2002, when the Ministry of Public Security\u2019s Entry and Exit Administration began an \u201con demand\u201d system to simplify passport applications. However, over the past decade, the Chinese government has tightened exit controls, including new travel restrictions on\u00a0religious minorities and\u00a0human rights defenders.
In 2016, authorities in Xinjiang\u00a0confiscated all previously issued passports as part of a crackdown in the region. While some Uyghurs can now travel abroad, they continue to face severe\u00a0restrictions.
Chinese authorities have also increasingly required government employees to surrender passports for \u201csafekeeping,\u201d requiring official approval for returning them. While such practices have long been common among high-level officials, they have been\u00a0expanded to lower-level employees, including those at schools, universities, and\u00a0hospitals. The authorities say the measures prevent graft and\u00a0deter the leaking of state secrets.
The authorities in recent years have\u00a0required citizens from areas they broadly consider high-risk for online fraud or \u201cunlawful\u201d emigration to submit additional paperwork and obtain multiple government approvals during passport applications.
The\u00a0Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: \u201cEveryone has the right to leave any country,\u201d including their own. The United Nations Human Rights Committee states in a\u00a0General Comment that governments may only limit freedom to leave when restrictions are \u201cprovided by law\u201d and necessary \u201cto protect national security, public order, public health or morals, or the rights and freedoms of others.\u201d Such restrictions must be proportionate to the interest to be protected, and the least intrusive option for achieving specific goals.
Chinese legislation that allows authorities to broadly restrict the right of nationals and foreigners to leave the country under vague claims does not meet these standards, Human Rights Watch said.
\u201cChina\u2019s exit restrictions will further chill expression and academic freedom, increasing self-censorship by Chinese nationals and foreigners fearful of being barred from leaving the country,\u201d Wang said. \u201cConcerned governments should press China to repeal these abusive rules and support their citizens affected by these arbitrary restrictions.\u201d
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