A court in China has evicted an American woman from her house in Beijing even as the Chinese authorities refuse to allow her to leave the country, despite public appeals and private lobbying from the United States.
“We frequently stress to the Chinese government — including at the highest levels — our concern about China’s coercive use of exit bans on U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries, and will continue to do so until we see a transparent and fair process,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
Chinese authorities have rebuffed those efforts in the case of Huang Wan, an immigrant to the United States whose father-in-law was one of the Chinese Communist Party’s top officials before his 2014 arrest and imprisonment for life on corruption charges. Huang has been trapped in China since 2016, despite issuing a statement apologizing for any wrongdoing perpetrated by her father-in-law, Zhou Yongkang.
“Although I am an American citizen, I face restrictions that I cannot leave the country and I have nowhere to turn to for help,” Huang wrote in an open letter published this week. “My only wish is to go home with my child. … Please let us go home.”
Chinese diplomats have cited a dispute over a lease to justify the “exit ban,” and Huang adds that she can’t leave because of another case involving her mother.
“The court said I cannot leave China because I am the daughter of my mother, who is the defendant,” she said, per the South China Morning Post. “But there has been no hearing and no trial for 18 months, and I still cannot leave.”
Chinese authorities have increased their use of exit bans against Americans in recent years, sometimes using the U.S. citizens as leverage against their family members. “We do not have firm numbers in terms of exactly how many people, on either the Chinese side or the international side, have been subjected to exit bans … but we know that the number is quite large,” Georgetown University Law Center’s Thomas Kellogg told the South China Morning Post.
Huang’s case is also tied to Xi Jinping’s tactics to remain atop the Chinese regime, a position that he has held in part by using corruption charges against his potential rivals. Zhou reportedly warned another top Chinese official that Xi would move against him, a leak that contributed to his own downfall.
“He still can’t protect his family,” Huang said in a 2019 message to other party officials. “Can you protect yours when it is your turn?”
Huang was ordered by a judge earlier this month to leave her house in Beijing. “I have now packed my things, but I don’t know where I will go,” she said.
China’s deployment of the exit bans is one of several irritants to diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing.
“We routinely work with likeminded governments — at all levels and worldwide — to advocate for the protection and welfare of our citizens abroad,” the State Department spokesperson said. “We are in contact with U.S. Citizen Ms. Huang Wan and are providing all appropriate consular services as we closely monitor the situation.”
