According to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday (July 17), Chenyue Mao, a senior executive and managing director of Wells Fargo in the United States, was recently subjected to a “restriction on leaving the country” after traveling to China. Following the incident, the bank has temporarily suspended all business travel to China.
Mao, who was born in Shanghai and currently resides in Atlanta, United States, has been responsible for the bank’s international factoring and trade financing business for an extended period. Sources revealed that she was unable to leave China several weeks after her arrival, and the authorities have not provided a specific reason for this restriction. An automatic email response from her company indicated that she was on an international business trip.
Wells Fargo confirmed to Reuters, saying, “We are closely monitoring the situation and assisting employees in returning to the United States through appropriate channels.”
Chenyue Mao currently serves as the Chair of the Factors Chain International (FCI), having been elected at the annual meeting held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June, having previously served as Vice Chair. According to FCI and her LinkedIn profile, she joined Wells Fargo in 2012, leading the bank’s international factoring business by providing cross-border operational funding strategies to multinational companies. During her tenure, FCI reported that she facilitated an annual increase in import factoring volume to 2.6 billion euros and promoted various innovative solutions.
Factoring is a corporate funding tool where companies can discount unpaid invoices to third parties like banks for cash; the third parties then collect the full amount and earn a profit from the difference.
Following Mao’s travel restriction in China, Wells Fargo has halted all business trips to the country, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. According to financial data provider Wind Information, the bank has factoring subsidiaries in Shanghai and Tianjin.
This case highlights the legal and personal risks that foreign companies face in China, particularly concerns regarding personnel freedom and operational safety raised by travel bans. Western officials and human rights organizations have pointed out that in recent years, the Chinese government has widely imposed exit restrictions on both Chinese and foreign individuals, often unrelated to criminal charges but involving commercial disputes, intimidation of dissenters, or cooperation in investigations, with individuals often learning about the restrictions when boarding or transiting flights.
Mao recently attended a business conference in Brazil and continues to be active on LinkedIn, with her latest update being a response to congratulations on her chairmanship two weeks ago. Both she and FCI have not responded to requests for comments from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. The White House and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have also not immediately responded to inquiries.
At the end of 2023, Nomura Holdings senior banker Charles Wang Zhonghe faced a travel ban during his visit to China; in September of the same year, Michael Chan, a senior executive from risk consulting firm Kroll, who holds a Hong Kong passport, was also restricted from leaving by Chinese authorities and remained in China as of May this year.