Overview

• Chenyue Mao, a U.S. citizen and managing director overseeing Wells Fargo’s international factoring business, remains barred from leaving China under an exit ban imposed this month.
• Wells Fargo has suspended all employee travel to mainland China in response to Mao’s continued detention and growing concerns over staff safety.
• The U.S. Embassy in Beijing formally urged Chinese authorities to lift arbitrary exit bans and allow affected American citizens to return home.
• China has increasingly used exit bans in civil and commercial disputes without transparent judicial processes to secure cooperation or exert leverage.
• Similar travel restrictions have ensnared executives at Nomura, Kroll and AstraZeneca, intensifying worries over the future of foreign business engagement in China.