9月15日生效的全新边境管制措施引发了中国民众对当局重启“闭关锁国”的深层担忧，迫使官方出面保证不会重返孤立主义政策。新规包含对被判定危及“国家产业或技术安全”的人员实施出境禁令。由于国家安全概念宽泛模糊，法律专家警告这赋予了官员阻拦公民出境的巨大自由裁量权，甚至在新规实施前夕，网络上已频繁流传科技行业领军人物逃离中国的传言。不过，该变化主要是在对既有但执行不一的限制予以制度化，例如今年人工智能企业Manus被售予Meta时，国家发改委以违反技术出口限制为由对其创始人实施边控，直到该交易取消并转售给中国投资者后，官方才示意放行出境。
更普遍的是，中国长期对涉密公职人员的出境旅行实施严格管控。各级政府官员、军人、国有企业员工甚至高校教授，通常都必须将护照上缴给单位主管，且出国前需获得明确审批，许多人在退休后仍受同等规则制约。与此同时，中国普通公民的海外出行并未停滞，出境游自新冠疫情重挫后稳步复苏；中国公民今年预计将完成约1.8亿人次出境旅行，超过2019年近1.7亿人次的历史最高峰。
官方解释称，实施新边检举措的主要目的是应对出境游激增伴随的安全风险，而非叫停出行。重点打击对象之一是针对东南亚非法赌场及网络诈骗窝点的“被诱骗出境务工”人员，中国仅从缅甸诈骗中心就已遣返了超过5.7万名本国公民。新规赋予官员要求赴高风险目的地人员提供额外材料（包括雇佣合同）的权力；前往西方国家的普通公民大多不会面临严厉盘查，但涉及国家机密或尖端技术的人员将面临更严密的质询乃至拒签，显示中国正在显著收紧对国门的看管。
New border controls that took effect on September 15th have ignited public anxieties over a modern return to “shutting the gates and sealing the country” (biguan suoguo), forcing authorities to reassure citizens that isolationism is not being pursued. The new measures include exit bans for individuals deemed to have endangered “national industrial or technological security”. Given the nebulous definition of national security, legal experts caution that officials now possess vast latitude to block citizens from departing, which sparked wild online rumours of prominent tech figures fleeing abroad prior to implementation. Nonetheless, the policy primarily codifies existing, haphazardly applied restrictions, illustrated earlier this year when the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) barred the founders of AI firm Manus from leaving after objecting to its sale to Meta for violating technology export curbs, only signalling permission after the deal unwound to domestic investors.
More broadly, China has long imposed strict foreign travel limits on public employees holding sensitive information. Officials across all bureaucratic ranks, military personnel, state-owned enterprise staff, and university professors are routinely required to surrender passports to supervisors and obtain explicit clearance before travelling abroad, rules that often persist into retirement. Despite these constraints, outbound mobility has strongly rebounded from pandemic lows, with Chinese citizens on track to log approximately 180m overseas trips this year, surpassing the prior record of nearly 170m set in 2019.
Chinese officials contend that the primary rationale for the regulations is mitigating hazards linked to surging foreign travel rather than stopping departures. A core focus entails curbing citizens “deceived into going abroad” for illicit employment at cyber-scam syndicates and underground casinos across South-East Asia, from which China has repatriated more than 57,000 citizens from Myanmar scam hubs alone. Under the new rules, border officials hold expanded powers to demand supplemental documentation such as employment contracts from individuals journeying to high-risk territories; while ordinary travellers to Western countries will largely avoid heightened scrutiny, anyone involved with advanced technologies or state secrets faces stringent questioning and increased rejections.
Source: China’s new exit rules stoke fears of ever-tighter border controls
Subtitle: Officials say they want to monitor overseas travel, not stop it
Dateline: Sep 17th 2026\n