China wants foreign businesses to invest more in the country, but recent actions taken against foreign executives and a U.S. government employee are sending a chill. Chinese authorities have blocked a U.S.-based Wells Fargo banker from returning home, and separately sentenced a Japanese executive to more than three years’ imprisonment for espionage.

中国希望外国企业加大对华投资，但最近针对数名外国高管以及一名美国政府雇员的举动却令人不寒而栗。中国当局阻止了一名常驻美国的富国银行银行家回国，并以间谍罪判处一名日本高管三年以上监禁。

Though few details of the cases have been made known, they are a reminder of China’s expansive security apparatus and what to some executives, business groups and foreign governments is an opaque legal system that makes traveling to the country risky.

尽管这些案件的细节尚未公开，但这对外界来说是一个提醒：中国拥有庞大的安全机构，对一些高管、商业团体以及外国政府来说，其法律体系缺乏透明度，这使得赴华旅行变得充满风险。

In a separate case, a U.S. government employee who had traveled to China on a personal trip has also been prevented from leaving the country for many weeks, said two people with a detailed knowledge of the case. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the employee works in the United States for the Patent and Trademark Office, a unit of the Department of Commerce, and had gone to China to visit relatives there.

据两位知情人士透露，在另外一宗案件中，一名因私赴华的美国政府雇员被禁止离开中国数周。《华盛顿邮报》周日报道称，该雇员在美国商务部下属的专利商标局工作，此次前往中国是为了探亲。

China has said little about either executive. Eric Zheng, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, called for the release of more details in the Wells Fargo case in order to reassure the foreign business community.

中国对上述高管的情况均未表态。美国商会上海分会会长郑艺呼吁公布更多关于富国银行案件的信息，以安抚外国商界的担忧。

Wells Fargo has suspended travel by its executives to China. Many Japanese companies have already been limiting travel to China and have been withdrawing family members of managers stationed in China.

富国银行已暂停派高管赴华出差。许多日本企业已开始限制赴华差旅，并开始撤回派驻中国的管理人员家属。

The Wells Fargo executive, Mao Chenyue, was not detained. But she has been ordered not to leave China, according to the bank. “We are closely tracking this situation and working through the appropriate channels so our employee can return to the United States as soon as possible,” Wells Fargo said in a statement.

富国银行表示，该行高管毛晨月（音）没有被拘留，但已被限制离境。“我们正密切关注这一情况，并通过适当渠道努力让我们的员工尽快返回美国，”富国银行在一份声明中说。

The exit ban on Ms. Mao was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

毛晨月被禁止出境的消息最早由《华尔街日报》报道。

Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesman, said this past week in response to each executive’s case that foreigners were subject to China’s laws while in the country. But he also said on Friday that “we always welcome enterprises from all countries to deepen their engagement in the Chinese market.”

中国外交部发言人林剑上周在回应这两起案件时表示，外国人在中国境内应遵守中国法律。但他上周五也表示，“我们始终欢迎各国企业深耕中国市场。”

Wells Fargo has not released any details of why Ms. Mao was prevented from leaving the country. Previous exit bans have sometimes involved situations when a large state-owned Chinese enterprise was investigating its own employees and wanted to compel an American executive with knowledge of the case to stay in China and testify against them.

富国银行没有公布毛晨月被禁止离境的具体细节。此前的一些出境禁令有时涉及中国大型国有企业的内部调查，政府试图强制知情的美国高管留在中国出庭作证。

A spokesperson from the United States Embassy in Beijing declined to comment on Ms. Mao’s case, but said, “We have raised our concern with Chinese authorities about the impact arbitrary exit bans on U.S. citizens have on our bilateral relations and urged them to immediately allow impacted U.S. citizens to return home.”

美国驻华大使馆的一位发言人拒绝就毛晨月案件发表评论，但表示：“我们已就任意对美国公民实施出境禁令对双边关系的影响向中方提出关切，并敦促中方立即允许受影响的美国公民回家。”

Foreign business interest in China has already been waning. A real estate crash has depressed consumer spending; regulatory obstacles hamper sales in China by foreign companies; and many industries face severe overcapacity.

外国企业对华投资兴趣本已持续衰减。房地产市场崩盘抑制了消费支出；监管壁垒阻碍了外国企业在中国的销售；许多行业还面临严重的产能过剩问题。

Wells Fargo is one of six global banks that dominate the processing of dollar-denominated payments for China’s exports and imports. Ms. Mao is a Wells Fargo managing director who specializes in factoring: helping big companies that need dollars immediately to sell their right to payments due in a couple months from their overseas customers.

富国银行是主导处理中国进出口美元支付业务的六家全球性银行之一。毛晨月是该行的董事总经理，专注于保理业务——帮助急需美元的大公司把原本几个月后才能从海外客户收到的“应收账款”出售，从而立刻变现。

According to Ms. Mao’s LinkedIn profile, she has worked for a succession of U.S. financial institutions since 2000, most recently for Wells Fargo for more than 13 years. Her profile says that she is a native or bilingual speaker of Chinese and English.

根据毛晨月在领英上的资料，她自2000年以来在多家美国金融机构工作，在富国银行任职已超过13年。她的个人简介显示她精通中英文。

Ms. Mao grew up in China and is a U.S. citizen now, said two people with knowledge of her situation who insisted on anonymity because of its political sensitivity.

据两位知情人士透露，毛晨月在中国长大，现为美国公民。由于案件的政治敏感性，两人要求匿名。

Her case has prompted particular nervousness among naturalized American citizens who grew up in China, they said. The Chinese government has sometimes treated Americans who were born in China as Chinese citizens differently from other American citizens.

他们表示，这起案件尤其引发了在中国长大的归化美国公民的紧张情绪。中国政府有时会区别对待出生在中国的美国人和其他美国公民。

Such risks are reflected in the American government’s Level 2 travel advisory for mainland China, which says that citizens should “exercise increased caution” because of “arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans.” The State Department had only eased its travel alert in November from Level 3, which urged travelers to “reconsider travel” to China.

这种风险在美国政府对中国大陆的二级旅行警告中已有体现。该警告称，鉴于“当地法律的执行存在任意性，包括出境禁令”，美国公民应“提高警惕”。美国国务院去年11月才将对中国的旅行警告从三级（“重新考虑旅行计划”）降至二级。

Companies and governments have also raised concerns that the broadening of counterespionage powers in China in recent years could put employees at foreign companies at risk of being targeted as spies for normal business practices such as gathering information on competitors, markets and industry.

许多企业与各国政府也对中国近年来反间谍权限的扩大表示担忧，认为这可能使外企员工因正常商业活动（如收集竞争对手、市场及行业信息）而被视作间谍，进而遭受风险。

On Wednesday, a Beijing court sentenced a longtime executive in China for Astellas Pharma of Japan to three and a half years in prison for espionage, according to the Japanese government, which expressed regret about the conviction. Neither China nor Japan has released details of that case or even officially confirmed the executive’s name. The executive was detained in 2023.

据日本政府称，上周三，北京一家法院以间谍罪判处日本制药企业安斯泰来一名在华长期任职的高管三年半监禁，日本政府对判决表示遗憾。中日双方均未公布案件详情，甚至未正式确认该高管的姓名。这名高管于2023年被拘留。