Benjamin Wilhelm, Jonathan Moules and Irwin Cruz Published September 15 2026. China has implemented sweeping new controls on overseas travel for Chinese citizens as President Xi Jinping steps up efforts to secure state secrets, advanced technology and highly skilled workers. The regulations formalise creeping restrictions on overseas trips for mid-to-senior-level civil servants, Communist Party cadres and state-owned enterprise employees. Those who breach the new rules will face steep fines and exit bans ranging from three months to an indefinite period.

"The result could be a gradual shift back towards a pre-1990s model in which international travel is treated less as an individual right and more as a privilege subject to administrative approval," said Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University.

While the new rules specified risks or violations that triggered the bans, "the broad wording of the regulation may create a practical chilling effect" on travel, according to Dai Menghao, a trade compliance partner at law firm King & Wood.

In other news, Open AI has held early conversations with investors about raising another private funding round at a $1.2tn valuation before its planned IPO. US borrowing costs hit their highest level since 2007 yesterday, as a global bond sell-off deepened following a renewed surge in oil prices.