One day after China issued a warning over studying in the US, two of the country’s key ministries on Tuesday issued another alert over traveling to the US, the latest measure to counter the negative consequences Chinese people are facing after the escalation of the US-initiated trade war, which has spread beyond broad economic measures to target the technology, education and tourism sectors.
US law enforcement departments have been increasingly harassing Chinese nationals in the US by questioning them as they enter or exit the country, as well as talking to them in their homes, Chen Xiongfeng, deputy director-general of the Department of Consular Affairs of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a Tuesday press conference in Beijing.
Chen said that Chinese nationals traveling to the US and Chinese companies operating in the US should be on alert to their safety and take preventive measures, and should contact Chinese embassies if necessary.
Echoing Chen, Yu Jiannan, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that according to information from Chinese consulates, the rate of crime, including theft, has increased recently in the US, so Chinese nationals should be cautious when traveling to the US and should take preventive measures and be alert to their surroundings.
Chen said the travel warning is issued as Chinese consulates across the US have received a lot of complaints from Chinese nationals after they were harassed by American law enforcement departments.
The travel warning is also out of concern over the safety of Chinese nationals, Yu said, noting that the US, despite its position as a major travel destination for Chinese tourists, often experiences incidents of violent crimes which could threaten the safety of Chinese nationals in the North American country.
Twelve people were dead during the recent tragedy in Virginia Beach on May 31 local time.
The number of Chinese tourists to the US fell 5.7 percent in 2018 to 2.9 million. It was the first time since 2003 that the number of Chinese travelers to the US slipped from the previous year, the Associated Press reported in May.
Yu said that roughly 150 million trips were made abroad in 2018. Tourists choose destinations based on their own will and on the situation of the destination. “Undoubtedly, the most important factor people consider is safety. Chinese tourists will surely made wise choices and cautiously evaluate their travel destinations,” said Yu.
Bai Ming, deputy director of the Ministry of Commerce‘s International Market Research Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the number of Chinese tourists to the US far outnumbered those traveling from the US to China, and the US travel industry is heavily depending on the rapidly increasing Chinese tourists, so a drop in Chinese tourists number will exert a heavy blow on relevant US industries.
It shows that the ongoing trade friction between the two countries has begun to hurt people-to-people exchanges in the two countries, Bai said.
Strong measures
The travel warning is just one among the raft of strong warnings and countermeasures China has issued to fight back against the US clampdown on China.
It comes one day after China’s Ministry of Education issued an alert over studying in the US. It called on students and academics to “enhance their risk assessment” after an increase in visa delays and denials for those who have applied to study in the US.
When asked what signal the series of warnings is sending, Geng Shuang, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a routine briefing on Tuesday that it is forced by circumstances. “China won’t do it if it were not necessary,” Geng said.
Issuing the warning is what a responsible government should do under such circumstances, Geng stressed.
China is still positive in its attitude toward normal people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, but these exchanges should be based on mutual respect, Geng said.
For about a year and a half, China has conducted 11 rounds of high-level trade talks with the US, based on the principle of mutual trust and reciprocity, hoping to achieve positive results. However, the US has been flip-flopping all along by raising tariffs.
China’s approach has always been principled and it has been forced to fight back, “But we made our attitude clear at the very beginning that we are not afraid to fight. We will fight with every card we have if necessary,” Bai said.
The warnings from China’s cultural and education authorities came days after the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced it would draft an entity list to counter US companies’ restrictive measures on either their Chinese partners or competitors that are made out of non-commercial purposes.
Called the “non-reliable entity list,” the list will include foreign entities, individuals and companies that block and shut the supply chain, or take discriminatory measures for non-commercial reasons, and when their actions endanger the business of Chinese companies as well as global consumers and companies, MOFCOM said on May 31.
Ahead of the release of the entity list, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s state economy planner, made a strong comment on May 28, saying that “if any country wants to use products made of China’s rare-earth exports to contain China’s development, the Chinese people would not be happy with that.”
This comment was widely seen as a move by China to weaponize its rare earths in an escalation of the trade war with the US.
