US govt. employee banned from leaving China
A State Department spokesperson told NHK on Monday, "We are tracking this case very closely and are engaged with Chinese officials to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."
The Patent and Trademark Office is a federal agency under the US Department of Commerce.
The Washington Post has reported that the employee is a Chinese American man, who traveled to China several months ago to visit family.
The paper said the man is being prevented from leaving China after he failed to disclose on his visa application that he worked for the US government.
A female executive of major US bank Wells Fargo has also been blocked from leaving China.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday that the woman "is involved in a criminal case currently being handled by Chinese law-enforcement authorities and is subject to exit restrictions."
The spokesperson added that "anyone, Chinese and foreigners alike, should abide by Chinese laws in China."
Reuters news agency said Wells Fargo has suspended all employee travel to China in response to the incident.
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Without question, they should hold rates at their July meeting and the inflation data would need to stay quite tame to justify a cut at the subsequent meeting in September, at least in the absence of a labor market deterioration. The tariff experiment, coupled with the shock exchange-rate reaction, is an event study unlike any other in recent memory and the stewards of stable prices can't take anything for granted. Even if prices do jump, it's still possible that the uptick won't lead to a lasting increase in the rate of inflation and the Fed can eventually get on with easier monetary policy. But at this point, the responsible option is to wait and see how it plays out in the data. Jonathan Levin is a columnist focused on U.S. markets and economics. He is a CFA charterholder.
