The State Department on Wednesday eased its travel advisory to China following the release of three Americans considered wrongfully detained by Beijing.
The advisory is now at Level 2 "exercise increased caution" for mainland China, down from Level 3 "reconsider travel," the agency said in a posting on its website.
"Exercise increased caution when traveling to Mainland China due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans," the advisory read, along with "Exercise increased caution when traveling to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws."
Earlier in the day, Americans Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung — the last prisoners in China classified by the State Department as wrongfully detained — reportedly were returned to the U.S. in an exchange for three Chinese nationals in U.S. custody who were not identified.
However, the State Department said a Level 3 advisory remains for the Macau SAR because of "a limited ability to provide emergency consular services."
"The U.S. government has a limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in the Macau SAR due to People’s Republic of China Ministry of Foreign Affairs travel restrictions on U.S. diplomatic personnel," the advisory read. "Even in an emergency, the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires all U.S. diplomatic personnel, including those accredited to the Macau SAR, to apply for and receive visas before entering the Macau SAR. This takes at least five to seven days, significantly limiting the U.S. government’s ability to offer timely consular services in the Macau SAR."
Easing of the travel advisory could most help U.S. academics who work closely with Chinese colleges and universities and who described the Level 3 warning as a deterrent to scholarly exchanges with China, Politico reported Wednesday.
The downgraded advisory suggests that "people to people exchange, and scholarly exchange in particular, can be cordoned off from heightened tensions" at the political level, Neysun Mahboubi, director of the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, told Politico.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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