logo
Washington says China will not let US government employee leave country

Washington says China will not let US government employee leave country

Nikkei Asia22-07-2025
The United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia: The U.S. government has confirmed that a USPTO employee visiting China has been prevented from leaving. © Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. State Department said on Monday that the Chinese government had blocked a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employee visiting the Asian country in a personal capacity from leaving.
"We are tracking this case very closely and are engaged with Chinese officials to resolve the situation as quickly as possible," a State Department spokesperson said.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is part of the federal Department of Commerce.
The individual's name and whether the person was detained were not disclosed.
The Chinese embassy in Washington and the U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that a U.S. citizen who works for the Commerce Department had traveled to China several months ago to visit family. The man was being prevented from leaving the country after he failed to disclose on his visa application that he worked for the U.S. government, the newspaper said, citing sources.
Beijing has used exit bans on both Chinese and foreign nationals in connection with civil disputes, regulatory enforcement and criminal investigations. Analysts say the tactic is at times used to crack down on local dissent and also as diplomatic leverage in disputes with other nations.
Washington and Beijing have had friction for years over tariffs, the origins of COVID-19, Taiwan and other issues.
Chenyue Mao, a Wells Fargo banker, has also been blocked from leaving China. Beijing's foreign ministry said on Monday she was involved in a criminal case and obliged to cooperate with an investigation.
Mao was the latest of several executives from foreign corporations to be stopped as they tried to depart China.
The U.S. bank suspended all employee travel to China after Mao's exit ban, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters last week, saying Mao was a U.S. citizen.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

US smartphone market growth slows as India-made devices surge: report
US smartphone market growth slows as India-made devices surge: report

Nikkei Asia

time25 minutes ago

  • Nikkei Asia

US smartphone market growth slows as India-made devices surge: report

An Apple Store in Mumbai. India has become the top manufacturing hub for smartphones sold in the U.S. for the first time, research firm Canalys says. © Reuters (Reuters) -- The United States smartphone market grew just 1% in the second quarter as vendors front-loaded device inventories amid tariff concerns, while supply chain negotiations between China and the United States boosted shipments of Indian-made phones, research firm Canalys said on Monday. The imposition of U.S. tariffs has prompted smartphone makers to reorganize their supply chains to avoid higher import costs and protect their margins. China, a major hub for electronics manufacturing, has been targeted by significant tariffs, pushing hardware makers to explore other Asian countries to maintain low production costs. In response to tariffs, Apple earlier this year sought to make most of its iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India. However, the move drew criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened additional tariffs on the Cupertino-based company if it did not produce domestically. "India became the leading manufacturing hub for smartphones sold in the U.S. for the very first time in Q2 2025, largely driven by Apple's accelerated supply chain shift to India amid an uncertain trade landscape between the US and China," said Sanyam Chaurasia, Principal Analyst at Canalys. "The market only grew 1% despite vendors front-loading inventory, indicating tepid demand in an increasingly pressured economic environment and a widening gap between sell-in and sell-through," said Runar Bjorhovde, Senior Analyst at Canalys. The share of U.S. smartphone shipments assembled in China fell from 61% in the second quarter of 2024 to 25% in the second quarter of 2025. India picked up most of the decline, with Indian-made smartphone volume growing 240% year-on-year.

US Senator Urges SpaceX to Block Internet Access to Southeast Asian Scam Operations
US Senator Urges SpaceX to Block Internet Access to Southeast Asian Scam Operations

The Diplomat

timean hour ago

  • The Diplomat

US Senator Urges SpaceX to Block Internet Access to Southeast Asian Scam Operations

A United States senator has urged SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to block Southeast Asia's transnational criminal syndicates from using the company's Starlink satellite internet service to run scams on American citizens. According to a report by Reuters, Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) wrote to Musk to alert him to recent reports that Starlink is being used by online scamming compounds based in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Such syndicates 'have apparently continued to use Starlink despite service rules permitting SpaceX to terminate access for fraudulent activity,' Hassan wrote in the letter to Musk, a copy of which was viewed by Reuters. She added that SpaceX 'has a responsibility to block criminals from using the service to target Americans.' She later followed this up with a post on social media that included a screenshot of the Reuters story and called publicly for the company to take action. In her letter to Musk, Hassan also cited statistics from the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network showing that Southeast Asia-based scam operations have been responsible for defrauding U.S. citizens out of billions of dollars. Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly Chinese criminal syndicates have established a firm base of operations in mainland Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar. These factories of fraud have relied on a large indentured workforce – mostly ordinary people who have been attracted by promises of employment, only to be kept imprisoned and forced to operate various types of digital scams, often on pain of beatings, mistreatment, and torture, as detailed in a recent report by Amnesty International. In April, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that scamming operations had generated close to $37 billion globally in 2023. Hassan is not wrong to claim that Starlink has facilitated such operations, albeit unwittingly. The remote internet service has allowed crime groups to set up online scamming operations in remote parts of the region, particularly in peripheral parts of Myanmar run by rebel groups. Internet is widely available in most regions, but Starlink units provide a portable alternative that has allowed scam operations to relocate swiftly in response to crackdowns by the region's governments. In February, Thailand's government cut internet access, along with power connections and fuel supplies, to three regions of neighboring Myanmar in an effort to shut down the online scamming centers that had been established there. However, as one observer noted on X yesterday, any crackdown on Starlink operations in Myanmar might also imperil their use by Burmese civil society organizations and political groups resisting the rule of the military junta in Naypyidaw. These groups have used satellite internet services to circumvent the strict internet controls and widespread mobile phone blackouts imposed by the junta since it took power in a coup in February 2021. According to a report published in Frontier Myanmar in March, 'Opposition groups increasingly rely on foreign-owned networks, such as satellite Internet services, to bypass government control and maintain connectivity.' It added, 'If Musk (or Trump) imposes broad restrictions on Starlink due to concerns about online scamming and illicit businesses, it could have unintended consequences – severing critical communication channels for activists and resistance groups while doing little to curb criminal enterprises.'

Pakistani forces kill militants linked to 2024 attack on Chinese in Karachi
Pakistani forces kill militants linked to 2024 attack on Chinese in Karachi

NHK

timean hour ago

  • NHK

Pakistani forces kill militants linked to 2024 attack on Chinese in Karachi

Authorities in Pakistan say security forces have killed three militants linked to an attack on Chinese nationals last November in the country's largest city, Karachi. The attack was carried out by a Pakistani guard at a textile factory who shot and wounded two Chinese workers. Officials said Monday the three militants were killed in their hideout in a raid which started late Sunday night. All three were members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Chinese nationals in Pakistan have increasingly come under attack by militant groups. They claim China's projects under its Belt and Road initiative unfairly exploit local resources. In October, two Chinese nationals were killed in a bomb attack near Karachi's international airport by militants seeking independence for Balochistan province.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store