On the eve of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 2025 Communist Party of China, the management of outbound travel for state-owned enterprises is once again being tightened. From financial institutions to central enterprises, from “annual limits” to “comprehensive suspension,” multiple signals indicate that the authorities are advancing an upgrade in cross-border movement monitoring for personnel within the system under the name of “risk prevention and control.” Analysts point out that this move reflects a further tightening of political trust within the system.
Before the Fourth Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China, an employee of a central enterprise in Beijing told a reporter from Epoch Times that there is an internal circulating temporary notice stating that all personnel with plans to go abroad are temporarily suspended. The administration and foreign affairs departments are drafting official documents, and until the documents are issued, all departments are instructed to inform their employees to halt outbound travel. In case of emergencies, separate reporting is required. The notice emphasizes that regardless of the type of visa held, all travel abroad must be stopped, and all departments must ensure thorough communication of this directive.
Multiple sources revealed to Epoch Times that although this directive has not yet materialized into official documents, some central enterprises have orally implemented measures of “all outbound travel being temporarily postponed.”
A central enterprise employee, Mr. Ma, stated, “The notice came after the Golden Week, and department heads asked us (employees who have just returned from overseas) to submit our passports, even ordinary employees were asked to hand them back. Now all outbound travel approvals are frozen, and I suspect it may be to save foreign exchange.”
Several internal sources from central enterprises disclose that since the beginning of October, various units have received verbal notifications to suspend all outbound travel approvals. Some company human resources departments have officially informed subordinate entities to halt outbound travel, regardless of the confirmed itinerary or visa status, necessitating postponement or cancellation.
Another source familiar with personnel work revealed that the exit management of central and state-owned enterprises is entering a new phase of tightening: “I heard the leaders say that all outbound projects have been suspended recently, and they are expected to readjust the process.”
Interviewees noted that starting from October 10, central enterprises in the foreign and energy sectors began to implement oral “suspension” instructions, with subsequent notifications for freezing outbound approvals sent to units in transportation, construction, technology, and other industries. A central enterprise employee from the northern region, Mr. Liu, mentioned that the company has requested all employees to hand over their passports to the Human Resources Department for centralized safekeeping in the past few days, citing the reason as “preventing management gaps before the documents are finalized.”
It is reported that such notifications are mainly conveyed in internal oral or text message form, with no public documents available for reference. Several individuals close to the state-owned enterprise foreign affairs and discipline inspection systems disclosed that these “pre-execution” measures often appear before policies are officially implemented to “control the pace first and supplement the procedures later.” A retired personnel who previously served as a director of foreign affairs in a central enterprise analyzed, “Such practices are not uncommon within the system, especially when there are new regulations pending at the central level, lower levels typically take precautionary measures in advance, preferring to suspend operations for a few extra days rather than risk issues.”
Even before the eleventh, multiple insiders had disclosed that banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions had orally requested that senior-level and above managerial personnel should generally only be allowed to apply for outbound travel once a year and require approval at each level; the practice has not been documented in public red-headed files. After the end of the Golden Week, related policies extended to employees of certain central enterprises and local state-owned enterprises.
However, Mr. Liu mentioned that it is currently unclear whether all employees of all enterprises under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) of the Communist Party of China are restricted from going abroad, or only certain industries are implementing it. Some viewpoints suggest that the relevant instructions may only be temporary measures and not necessarily develop into formal policies.
This incident occurred on the eve of the Fourth Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China, and the sudden tightening of passport policies within the system has sparked various speculations. Several interviewees described, “The atmosphere is very tense now, senior officials are avoiding going out, many things that could be said before are now kept unsaid, unclear about the intentions of the higher-ups.” They generally suspect that this move is related to the Fourth Plenary Session.
An observer familiar with the policy-making process, identified as Mr. Cheng, analyzed, “This wave of ‘suspension of outbound travel’ may be an extension of the logic of risk prevention and control. In recent years, the Central Committee has paid extra attention to the outflow of state-owned assets and personnel, and foreign travels are no longer viewed solely as individual trips but are included in the realm of ‘political security’.”
He added, “In the past, it used to be about preventing corruption and fleeing abroad; now it is about political loyalty and sensitive information security.”
A policy researcher also indicated that units, especially those handling fund flows, energy strategies, and overseas investment projects, are considered as “high-risk groups.” He believes that such oral instructions are mostly temporary control measures, but the political signals are clear, namely that prior to the Fourth Plenary Session, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China hopes to comprehensively grasp the dynamics of personnel within the system and prevent “uncontrolled outbound travel” by high-risk positions.
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