China wants school teachers to hand over their passports

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Chinese authorities are demanding that a growing number of teachers and other public sector workers surrender their passports as President Xi Jinping tightens his grip on society.

The passport collection drive, which is being carried out under what is known as “managing one’s travel abroad,” allows local government officials to control and monitor who can go abroad, how often and where.

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It comes as Xi increases state involvement in everyday life and cracks down on official corruption. China’s powerful state security company has also stepped up its campaign against foreign espionage.

Interviews with more than a dozen Chinese government officials and notices from educational institutions in half a dozen cities show that restrictions on foreign travel have been widened since last year to include employees of schools, universities, local governments and state-run groups.

“All teachers and public sector workers have been told to bring us our passports,” said a primary school teacher in a major city in the western province of Sichuan.

“If we want to go abroad, we have to apply to the education office in the city and I don’t think it will be approved,” said the teacher, asking that they and their city not be disclosed.

Teachers in Yichang in the central province of Hubei and another city in neighboring Anhui province told the Financial Times they were also told to hand in their travel documents. This summer, in the weeks before the start of the school year, teachers in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Henan provinces complained on social media about being forced to hand in their travel documents.

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“I was an English student, my lifelong dream is to visit an English-speaking country, but it feels like that will disappear,” wrote one teacher from Henan on the social networking site Xiaohongshu.

The collection of passports appears to be based on national laws from 2003 that established a system to restrict the movement of key personnel such as mid-level to senior officials and allowed local authorities to set rules for all government employees’ international travel.

Citizens of violent regions like Tibet lost their freedom of movement more than a decade ago. Since the mid-2010s, some jurisdictions have implemented “overseas travel management” rules for local teachers. Last year, after pandemic-era travel restrictions were lifted, more educational institutions began introducing travel restrictions for teachers and increased them this summer.

China’s ruling Communist Party has long made it a priority to instill loyalty in students and has made the political education of teachers central to those efforts. Pre-departure instructions for teachers in the eastern city of Wenzhou show that local administrators are concerned about the views they may encounter from outside the country.

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Teachers traveling abroad must not have contact with the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong or other “hostile foreign forces”, according to instructions published by the Wenzhou provincial education center in Ouhai in March on the provincial website along with new travel restrictions for teachers.

The district has demanded that all elementary, middle and high school teachers submit their passports and say their names will be registered with the border control unit of the public security unit.

To go abroad, teachers must apply to their schools and will generally be limited to one trip of less than 20 days each year, the district notice said.

Teachers who refuse to hand over their passports or visit abroad without permission will face “criticism and disciplinary action” or be referred to China’s anti-corruption authorities, depending on the severity of their case, the notice said. Offenders will be banned from traveling for two to five years.

The ban on government employees appears to be linked to a growing campaign to end foreign espionage.

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An entry-level bank teller in Nanjing said he was told to hand in his passport when he joined a state-run group last year. After quitting the job in March, he had to wait six months for the “concealment” procedure before he could do it again.

In central Hunan province, a mid-level official at the local government investment fund said he had received permission from nine different departments to go on vacation abroad but still could not get his passport.

“Nobody can tell me what exactly is needed to get my passport,” he said.

The restrictions also hit retirees. A 76-year-old who retired from a state-owned aircraft manufacturer more than 10 years ago says his former employer confiscated his passport this year for “security reasons” and prevented him from visiting his family abroad.

“I can’t get sensitive information and I’m a patriot,” he said. “My former employer has no reason to prevent me from visiting my grandson.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was unaware of the situation and referred questions to relevant officials. Educational institutions in Sichuan, Yichang, Anhui, Wenzhou, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Henan did not respond to requests for comment.

Additional reporting by Tina Hu in Beijing

© 2024 The Financial Times Ltd

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