U.S. Representative Michael McCaul reports that he has been fighting to secure the release of Mark Swidan, a businessman detained or imprisoned in China for over a decade (“The CCP is taking Americans hostage—Biden wants to send more,” April 16, 2024).
The CCP takes innocent American tourists and business executives into custody at random. Our ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, recently said China raided “six or seven” U.S. businesses in the past 11 months, taking company executives hostage.
Among the most horrific examples of the CCP’s arbitrary detentions is Mark Swidan, a Texan whom I have fought to have released. Mark was traveling through China when he was arrested suddenly in his hotel room for a crime he could not have done. In fact, he wasn’t even in China when the crime was committed. In spite of his innocence, he has been held in China for over a decade and sentenced to death….
Every single American who travels to China could be detained like Mark Swidan. A sweeping set of CCP laws implemented between 2019-2023 encourage hostage-taking based on vague, open-ended provisions that can be used for any charge—even charges you have nothing to do with. Recorded “exit ban” cases in China rose eightfold between 2016 and 2022—meaning eight times as many people are banned from leaving China now than there were in 2016. In 2022, nearly 30 Americans in China were unable to leave due to exit bans and over 100 Americans are still arbitrarily detained in Chinese prisons—and these are just the ones we know about.
Despite the inadequacy of our information, it is probably reasonable to assume that the chances are low that the Chinese government will arbitrarily detain any particular American visitor. But the chances are not so low that the threat of arbitrary detention can be ignored, not so low as to make it a good idea to visit China or do business in China if this can possibly be avoided. (Even if one regards personal risk as the only relevant moral consideration; there are others.)
That these detentions of foreigners are happening at all and are increasing means that your chances of being arbitrarily detained while in China will likely only get worse. On the other hand, the chances that China will be under the totalitarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party during your time there are 100 percent.
We also know with 100 percent certainty that one of the CCP’s primary strategies is to see just how much bad conduct it can get away with. Then how much more.
Also see:
Daily Mail: “China has raided seven American businesses in Beijing and arrested employees on suspicion of espionage, ambassador Nicholas Burns reveals”
“It’s written in such a general way that it could be that American business people could be accused of espionage for engaging in practices that are perfectly legal and acceptable everywhere else in the world,’ Burns said of the new counter-espionage law.”
