The Communist Party has been widening the legal landscape for imposing exit bans and is increasing their use against human rights defenders and their families, for holding people hostage to force targets overseas to come back to China -a practice called ‘persuade to return’, a form of transnational repression-, controlling ethnic-religious groups, engaging in hostage diplomacy and intimidating foreign journalists. Often no reason is given, and channels to challenge the ban are either non-existent or ineffective.
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This is concerning for people with family in China, regardless of their nationality.
What’s described in the article sounds like blackmail. This may have bad consequences for people subject to this. I wonder how that’d affect people access to gov or sensitive jobs if they at risk for blackmail.
It’s also in sharp contrast to China’s official rhetoric as officials say the country will open after its zero-covid policy, e.g., here. How does China open up without recognizing basic human rights and barring people from leaving the country obviously often without giving a reason?