China announced on Monday that an employee of the American Bank Wells Fargo was prohibited from leaving the territory, confirming the information of the press published last week, which justifies this measure for their participation in a “criminal case.”
The Wells Fargo Bank told AFP last week that he provided help to Chenyue Mao, a general director, who entered China in recent weeks, but now he couldn’t leave them.
She is “involved in a criminal case in processing by the Chinese authorities,” said a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Since the case is the subject of an investigation, Mrs. Mao Chenyue cannot leave the country at this time and is obliged to cooperate in the investigations,” he added.
He did not give details about the nature of the investigation and the supposed facts. For its part, Wells Fargo has not provided more information about the case.
Born in Shanghai and based in Atlanta, Chenyue Mao was prohibited from leaving the Chinese territory, the Wall Street Journal revealed Thursday. This incident led to the bank, based in San Francisco, to suspend all business trips of its employees to China, according to several US media.
China evokes an “individual” case
The American embassy in Beijing, on the other hand, “said (their) concerns of the Chinese authorities about the impact of arbitrary exit prohibitions imposed on US citizens in (their) bilateral relations and urged them to immediately authorize US citizens concerned to return home.”
“Whether a person is China or foreign, in China he must comply with Chinese laws. China will protect their legitimate rights and interests,” said spokesman Guo Jiakun, saying that it was an “individual” case. “China will continue to welcome, as always, national from all countries that wish to travel and do business in China, and protect their rights and interests in accordance with the law,” he said.
The cases of foreign employees prevent the Chinese territory from regularly abandoning. Organizations that represent foreign companies deplore a more difficult commercial environment in China, particularly due to the lack of transparency in regulations and arrests or employee detention.
Concerned companies
“Such stories can cause concerns among foreign companies regarding trips to China,” said Reuters Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. For him, this is a bad sign 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 three and a half years in espionage. In November, the Astrazeneca pharmaceutical giant confirmed that the manager of his operations in China, Leon Wang, had been arrested after informing information for the illegal data collection and importation of medicines.
According to a survey conducted by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, 9% of the companies questioned the difficulties reported to attract foreign citizens to work in China due to concerns related to personal security and/or civil and criminal liability, mixing arrests and arbitrary prohibitions for the exit of the territory.
Among the 128 people interviewed, 4% also said that business trips from China to the headquarters of their business had been interrupted due to the prohibition that their employees abandon China.
Source: BFM TV
