Beijing has kept a 7-year-old American boy inside China for two years without accusing him of anything. His father is Gao Zhen, a 70-year-old artist and a Chinese citizen with an American green card. Police took Gao from his studio outside Beijing in August 2024, about a week before the family's flight home to New York. On August 25 a court in Hebei gave him the maximum three years for "slandering heroes and martyrs," a crime created in 2021, over Mao sculptures he and his brother made between 2005 and 2009. Authorities have kept his wife, also a green-card holder, under an exit ban since his arrest, citing national security, and the boy stays with her. Her ban predates the rules Beijing puts into force on September 15, which widen the net. Under Article 4 of the State Council's Decree No. 841, a returning citizen deemed to have engaged in "illegal or criminal activities" abroad that "endanger national security" can be barred from leaving for six months to three years. A ministry in Beijing can make that call, or the person's home province can, once an embassy or consulate has "verified" the conduct. Beijing left courts out of all 19 articles. Article 6 lets officials withhold the reasons for a ban if disclosure "might affect" national security. Article 3 reaches foreigners as well: officers checking your identity or your reason for travel may demand "electronic data," and travelers "shall cooperate." Li Yanhe, a Taiwan-based publisher, went to Shanghai in March 2023 to cancel his mainland household registration so he could complete his application for Taiwanese citizenship. Shanghai state security detained him on March 21, and a court later gave him three years for inciting secession. Zhang Yadi, 22, edited a Chinese-language platform on Tibetan rights while studying in France. State security arrested her in Shangri-La on July 31, 2025, weeks before she was due to start a master's degree in London, on suspicion of inciting separatism. ACI — Aric Chen | Insights