We don’t know his name, only that he is a U.S. citizen who works for the U.S. government and that several months ago, when he traveled to China, he neglected to mention his employer on the visa application.
For this reason (maybe), the unnamed Chinese American is being detained in China, reports The Washington Post (July 20, 2025).
The American, an employee of the Patent and Trademark Office, went to China to visit family and now has been caught up in China’s controversial practice of blocking Chinese and foreign nationals from leaving China—in what is often seen by Washington as a tool of coercion against people and businesses….
The State Department declined to address the case but said in a statement that “our highest priority is the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.”
“We track these cases closely, and have raised our concern with Chinese authorities about the well-being of our citizens and the impact these arbitrary exit bans have on our bilateral relations and urged them to immediately allow impacted U.S. citizens to return home,” the statement said.
The statement of official concern doesn’t seem to suggest that getting this guy out and getting out other U.S. citizens currently trapped in China is in fact our government’s highest priority. The exact number of such detainees is hard to determine, the Post says, but “at least several dozen Americans, many of them ethnic Chinese…are under exit bans.”
Congressman John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, calls this latest instance “another case of CCP hostage diplomacy. This is a tactic, not a coincidence—and it’s unacceptable. The freedom of all Americans must remain a top priority and this is not the only American being unjustly detained by China.”
The State Department’s “close tracking” and “urging” should be supplemented by making the release of all these detained Americans, as well as a ban on future such exit bans, a sine qua non of trade negotiations. Meantime, restore the slate of hundred-percent-plus tariffs on imports from China.
