State Department Confirms China Barred US Citizen From Leaving

The US State Department confirmed that a US Patent and Trademark Office employee has been barred from leaving China, and said officials were working to resolve the situation.

The department said the employee was “made subject to an exit ban” while traveling in China “in a personal capacity.”

“We are tracking this case very closely and are engaged with Chinese officials to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,” the department said.

The statement confirmed earlier reports in the Washington Post and elsewhere that China had stopped the US citizen from departing for several months. The Post said the ban was put in place over an apparent failure to disclose on a visa application that he worked for the US government. 

Officials from Beijing and Washington — including in the Commerce Department — are negotiating a trade deal after President Donald Trump hit goods from China with heavy tariffs that he later paused. Trump also wants a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to sort through their problems, which touch on technology curbs, rare earths and the status of Taiwan.

The Commerce Department employee, a veteran of the US Army, was detained when he arrived in the southwestern city of Chengdu in April, the South China Morning Post reported Sunday, citing a person familiar with the situation.

He was being prevented from leaving China because his case was “related to actions Beijing deemed harmful to national security,” the newspaper reported, though the specifics couldn’t be confirmed. Since the man arrived in Chengdu, he had also traveled to the Chinese capital with a US official, the newspaper reported.

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