This employee of the Wells Fargo bank is “involved in a criminal case in processing by the Chinese authorities,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
China announced on Monday that an employee of the American bank Wells Fargo was prohibited from leaving the territory, confirming press information published last week, Beijing justifying this measure by its involvement in a “criminal case”.
The Wells Fargo bank told AFP last week that it provided help to Chenyue Mao, a director general, who entered China in recent weeks but now unable to leave them
She is “involved in a criminal case in processing by the Chinese authorities,” said a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry of Foreign Ministry. “Since the case is the subject of an investigation, Ms. Mao Chenyue cannot leave the country at the moment and is obliged to cooperate in investigations,” he added.
He did not give details on the nature of the investigation and the alleged facts. For his part, Wells Fargo has not provided more information on the case.
Born in Shanghai and based in Atlanta, Chenyue Mao was forbidden to leave Chinese territory, the Wall Street Journal revealed Thursday. This incident led the bank, based in San Francisco, to suspend all of its employees’ business trips to China, according to several American media.
China evokes an “individual” case
The American Embassy in Beijing, for its part, “expressed (its) concerns to the Chinese authorities about the impact of arbitrary exit bans imposed on American citizens on (their) bilateral relations and urged them to immediately authorize the American citizens concerned to return home”.
“Whether a person is Chinese or foreign, in China they must comply with Chinese laws. China will protect its legitimate rights and interests,” said spokesman Guo Jiakun, saying that it was an “individual” case. “China will continue to welcome, as always, nationals of all countries wishing to travel and do business in China, and protect their rights and interest in accordance with the law,” he said.
Cases of foreign employees prevented from leaving Chinese territory regularly occur. Organizations representing foreign companies deplore a more difficult commercial environment in China, in particular due to a lack of transparency on the regulations and arrests or detention of employees.
Worried companies
“Such stories can cause concerns among foreign companies concerning travel to China,” said Reuters Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. For him, this is a bad signal sent by Beijing at a time when China is trying to attract foreign investors.
Last week, Chinese justice condemned a Japanese employee of the Japanese pharmaceutical group Astellas to three and a half years in prison for espionage. In November, the pharmaceutical giant Astrazeneca confirmed that the manager of his operations in China, Leon Wang, had been placed in detention after information reporting for illegal data collection and importation of medicines.
According to a survey by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, 9% of the companies questioned reported difficulties in attracting foreign nationals to work in China due to concerns related to personal security and/or civil and criminal liability, mixing arbitrary arrests and prohibitions for exit from the territory.
Among the 128 people interviewed, 4% also said that business trips from China to the headquarters of their business had been disrupted due to the ban for their employees to leave China.