Ticket to China? Check this list of detained foreign citizens first

If you are planning to visit China, you should know about some individuals such as Michael Kovrig who is a Canadian NGO worker and was detained by China in 2018 on charges of espionage.

Another man Cheng Lei is an Australian journalist at CGTN, who was arrested in August last year, and was accused of leaking state secrets. Next is Richard O'Halloran, an Irish businessman who has been held without any charge in China for more than two years now.

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The list can go longer as the names of foreign detainees in China is exhaustive. Foreign nationals have been arbitrarily detained because most of them are citizens of a country engaged in a diplomatic spat with China.

A new report says that now a growing number of people such as academics, journalists, vloggers, activists, former diplomats and more are wary of travelling to China because of such arbitrary detentions.

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As per this report, in December 2020, the US State Department issued a travel advisory that asked people to reconsider travelling to China and Hong Kong due to increasing arbitrary enforcement of laws. The warning came barely two months after the detention of Cheng Lei. In March 2020, when the coronavirus was still spreading rapidly in China, Cheng Lei wrote, "In China, the belief 'do as I say, not as I do' runs deep in public office. 'Serve the people,' goes the slogan. Reality is the opposite."

This post landed her in trouble as she was arrested and charged with leaking state secrets. Her arrest coincided with a diplomatic spat between China and Australia. She has been in detention since then, but nobody knows where China has been keeping her.

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Bill Birtles and Mike Smith are two other Australian journalists working in China, but they managed to escape. As Chinese officials tried arresting them the same month, they sought refuge in their country's diplomatic missions. Finally, they were allowed to leave.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, however, were not so lucky. These two Canadians were arrested on charges of spying in December 2018. Their whereabouts are unknown to this day and their detention has been called a bargaining chip as it could help leverage the release of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive who has been held in Canada.

Then we have the case of Richard O'Halloran, a businessman from Dublin who flew to China in February 2019 to resolve a dispute between his employer and Chinese authorities. He was arrested without any charges and has remained in prison ever since.

Ireland has no obvious clash with China, but even it has issued a warning for its citizens warning that they could face detention in China if they have a business dispute with the Chinese.

The pandemic put the spotlight on China's arbitrary detentions, but the practice is not new. China's hostage diplomacy dates back years. Between 2009 and 2020, more than 50 cases involving foreigners detained in police custody have emerged. Out of this, 28 people were accused of being involved in sensitive activities and three of them have been sentenced to death.

Most of these cases are seen as China's retribution for geopolitical skirmishes.

A growing number of foreign citizens in China now fear for their safety. In a recent survey conducted by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC), 40 per cent of respondents said their internet accounts were targeted in attempted hacks in 2020. Nearly 87 per cent felt their WeChat accounts were snooped upon and 40 per cent said they were followed while 30 per cent claimed they were forced to show or delete data on their devices by Chinese authorities.

However, China has dismissed all these reports, claiming it is only following the rule of law. "What I want to stress is that China is a country with rule of law. Any individual in China must abide by Chinese law. We have always welcomed foreign media and correspondents to do interviews and reporting in accordance with the law and regulations, and we will continue to provide convenience and assistance. What we oppose is ideological bias targeting china. We are opposed to fake news done in the name of press freedom, and actions that violate journalism ethics," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.