China warns on US travel

June 18, 2019

China has warned its tourists who are looking to travel to the US of harassment by US Officials in a travel alert issued by the country admits rising tensions in the trade war.

As reported by The Boston Globe, China issued a travel warning for the United States earlier in June, “saying Chinese visitors have been interrogated, interviewed, and subjected to other forms of what it called harassment by US law enforcement agencies.”

According to the article, the publicised notice advises Chinese citizens to raise their safety awareness, take preventative measures and act ‘‘appropriately and actively.’’

The notice goes on to say that recently, the US government began to ask US visa applicants to provide social media account information. The Chinese Embassy in the United States once again reminded Chinese citizens who are going to the United States to abide by the relevant laws when applying for a visa, truthfully fill out the purpose of going to the United States, and truthfully provide the application materials.

The US border enforcement officers have the final decision to grant entry. It is very common to be denied entry to the United States with a US visa. It is mostly because the US border enforcement department suspects that the purpose of the party to the United States does not match the visa category. If the border law enforcement officers have doubts about the entry purpose or the documents of the immigrants, the immigrants need to go to the second inspection area for further inspection and interview.

Another travel alert was issued by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism for travel to the United States noting the high frequency of shootings, robberies, and theft in the country. Chinese students abroad were urged to assess the risks involved given tightened visa restrictions.

The alerts issued are in place until 31 December.

Could this be part of the trade war dispute that is heating up? Spokesman Geng Shuang of the Foreign Ministry told reporters at a daily briefing in Beijing it was a response to “current circumstances.”

The Boston Globe reports that Geng Shuang added: ‘‘For some time, the US has politicised normal China-US educational exchanges using the China threat and Chinese infiltration as excuses.”

The National Travel and Tourism Office reported that travel from China to the United States fell 5.7 percent in 2018 to 2.9 million individuals.