A new Chinese 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's 19-article Regulations 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.
"The Chinese government is tightening its rules to decide arbitrarily who can and cannot leave China, violating the internationally protected right to leave one's country," said Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The 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."
Many provisions of Decree No. 841 consolidate exit restrictions in China's Exit and Entry Administration Law, the Passport Law, and other regulations. Article 12(5) of the Exit and Entry Administration Law, for instance, broadly allows the authorities to prohibit citizens who "may endanger national security or interests" 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, "when necessary," to "dissuade" citizens from traveling to "high-risk" countries or regions when processing travel document applications or at border controls. The decree does not define the criteria for "high-risk" or the standard for when dissuasion becomes "necessary," leaving decisions to relevant departments' discretion. Article 3 states that anyone applying to leave China must show that their reasons are "truthful and lawful," without defining "lawful" 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 "illegal or criminal activities abroad endangering national security or interests."
Article 6 states that people barred from leaving China must ordinarily be notified "in writing of the facts, reasons, legal basis, and available remedies for the ban," but allows authorities to withhold notice "if disclosure may affect national security or criminal investigations." The decree also prohibits exit-entry intermediary services, such as immigration advisers, from engaging in vaguely defined "acts that endanger national security or interests."
In addition, article 4 allows administrative authorities to bar nationals from leaving the country when they "violate export control, technology import and export administration…in a manner that may endanger national industrial or technological security." An official explanation of the new rules says that this is to combat "illegal transfer of technology abroad." In March 2026, Chinese authorities banned 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 "the countermeasures list, unreliable entity list, [or] malicious entity list" for having "endangered China's national sovereignty" and other vaguely defined actions.
Chinese authorities have also issued exit bans on specific foreign nationals without justification. In July 2025, the government blocked a US federal employee and a Wells Fargo bank executive from leaving China, though neither had been charged with a criminal offense.
Chinese citizens-except those from Xinjiang and Tibetan areas-had largely been able to travel abroad more easily since 2002, when the Ministry of Public Security's Entry and Exit Administration began an "on demand" system to simplify passport applications. However, over the past decade, the Chinese government has tightened exit controls, including new travel restrictions on religious minorities and human rights defenders.
In 2016, authorities in Xinjiang confiscated all previously issued passports as part of a crackdown in the region. While some Uyghurs can now travel abroad, they continue to face severe restrictions.
Chinese authorities have also increasingly required government employees to surrender passports for "safekeeping," requiring official approval for returning them. While such practices have long been common among high-level officials, they have been expanded to lower-level employees, including those at schools, universities, and hospitals. The authorities say the measures prevent graft and deter the leaking of state secrets.
The authorities in recent years have required citizens from areas they broadly consider high-risk for online fraud or "unlawful" emigration to submit additional paperwork and obtain multiple government approvals during passport applications.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to leave any country," including their own. The United Nations Human Rights Committee states in a General Comment that governments may only limit freedom to leave when restrictions are "provided by law" and necessary "to protect national security, public order, public health or morals, or the rights and freedoms of others." 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.
"China's 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," Wang said. "Concerned governments should press China to repeal these abusive rules and support their citizens affected by these arbitrary restrictions."
