Recently, American multinational company BlackRock Inc. has issued an internal notice concerning the safety risks faced by employees traveling to China. Due to increasing concerns from foreign enterprises, employees embarking on business trips to China are now required to use temporary mobile phones instead of BlackRock-provided laptops and iPhones. They will also be restricted from accessing the company’s network while in China.
According to an internal memo seen at Bloomberg News, the world’s largest asset management firm detailed its “policy reinforcement” for employees traveling to China for business purposes. The memo outlined that employees are not allowed to use company-issued devices, including iPhones, iPads, laptops, or access the network through VPN while in China. Personal travel to China will also restrict access to BlackRock’s network.
A BlackRock spokesperson has yet to respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment.
This latest development comes amid growing unease among foreign enterprises over employee travel to China. Last week, J.P. Morgan suspended employee travel to China after its Managing Director Chenyue Mao was detained in China and prohibited from leaving the country.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun confirmed this during a routine press conference on Monday, July 21, stating that Chenyue Mao is under investigation for alleged “criminal offenses”.
J.P. Morgan stated that they are working through “appropriate channels” to assist Ms. Mao in returning to the United States.
In addition to the J.P. Morgan incident, a Chinese-American working at the United States Patent and Trademark Office under the Department of Commerce was reportedly restricted from leaving China while visiting relatives, as reported by The Washington Post.
The U.S. Embassy in China expressed close concern over the situation of American citizens facing exit bans in China and has urged Beijing to immediately allow affected U.S. citizens to return to their home country.
An embassy spokesperson recently mentioned that “For years, the Beijing government has imposed exit bans on American citizens and other foreign nationals in China without a clear and transparent judicial process.”
In recent years, there have been numerous incidents of foreign enterprise employees being detained in China. Last week, a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on espionage charges by a Beijing court. The Japanese government protested against China’s detention of Japanese residents.
In March of this year, the Chinese authorities released employees of the U.S. due diligence firm Mintz Group who had been detained in Beijing two years ago. Five local employees of the company were detained during a raid in March 2023, signaling the beginning of China’s crackdown on foreign consulting and due diligence firms, including the Shanghai office of Bain & Company.