China tightens exit restrictions; Uyghurs and Tibetans face passport hurdles

The Chinese government has increasingly imposed arbitrary restrictions on people’s internationally protected right to leave the country.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Chinese authorities need people from areas they generally deem to be at high risk of online fraud or “illegal” emigration to provide extra documentation and receive approval from many government offices when applying for a passport. Passports are frequently refused to those who don’t meet these onerous conditions. In regions where the majority population consists of Tibetans and Uyghurs, the government has long prohibited citizens from obtaining passports.

“While many Chinese citizens enjoy international travel, the right to leave China appears to be restricted for growing categories of people throughout the country,” said Maya Wang, Associate China Director at Human Rights Watch.

“The authorities are going beyond existing restrictions on Tibetans and Uyghurs to limit the travel of people throughout China under the guise of anti-crime campaigns,” HRW quoted Maya Wang as saying.

HRW report highlighted that to streamline the passport application procedure, the Ministry of Public Security’s Entry and Exit Administration, which is in charge of passport issuance, implemented a new “on-demand” system in late 2002. This system has been extended to the vast majority of areas in China. However, Xinjiang, Tibet, and the 13 Tibetan or Hui autonomous prefectures in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces were never allowed to use the expedited passport application process.

In comparison to other regions of China, applicants from these regions must provide significantly more comprehensive documentation with their passport applications, and they frequently have lengthy wait times, often years before their applications are granted or are routinely turned down for no valid reason, according to HRW report.

The HRW report revealed that Xinjiang authorities also confiscated all previously granted passports in 2016. According to Human Rights Watch, Chinese laws that permit the government to impose extensive restrictions on citizens’ freedom to leave the country based on nebulous national security justifications do not adhere to these principles.

“Growing restrictions on the right to obtain passports have raised anxiety that Xi Jinping’s government is restoring practices from when few people could travel abroad,” Wang said. “Chinese authorities should drop these arbitrary and discriminatory practices so that everyone has the equal right to leave the country,” HRW quoted Wang as saying.