Since 2023, when we first published our report on Exit Bans, there is strong evidence that the increasing trend in exit bans has only grown stronger.
China does not release public data on the number of exit bans, but we can use a proxy: the number of times exit bans is mentioned in verdicts on China’s Supreme Court Database (China Judgements Online or CJO).
The below chart shows the number of entries when we search for “限制出境” (exit ban) on the CJO for verdicts only for a period of 10 years spanning 2016 to 2025. These include both civil and criminal verdicts.
Between 2021 and 2024, exit ban mentions largely doubled every year. We expect 2025 to be an underestimate because it takes time for data to be uploaded to the system.
It is important to note that the number itself does not equal the number of exit bans issued for several reasons.
It is not the numbers here that are important, rather it is how they are changing.
The sharp increase in the CJO data (roughly doubling every year) is a strong indication that the number of exit bans is also growing very fast.
The real number of exit bans is likely much higher than this because many exit bans don’t even end up on this database because they are not connected with a judicial process. Additionally, these are verdicts—many cases which relate to exit bans may never reach this database because they are resolved before going to court. It is also known that the data is incomplete – a proportion of verdicts are never recorded on CJO, something which is thought to have only become more common in recent years, especially after COVID. This means it is possible the trend in rising exit bans is even more pronounced than this data indicates.
The data is also complicated by the fact that a single mention on the CJO can apply to several exit bans if a case involves multiple persons. Also, the person may take the case to appeal, so two mentions on the CJO can refer to the same exit ban.
The CJO exit ban data includes many civil cases, such as private lending disputes, corporate payment disputes and construction contract disputes. It also includes a smaller number of criminal cases and administrative cases.
The earlier rise in exit bans from 2016 is likely linked to a nationwide measure launched that year aimed at ensuring those who owe debts and refuse to pay despite having the means to do so are punished. For more on exit bans and this data please see our report Trapped: China’s Expanding Use of Exit Bans.
Since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, China has expanded the legal landscape for exit bans and increasingly used them, sometimes outside legal justification, on everyone from activists to foreign journalists and for transnational repression and other coercive practices.
These latest regulations continue this worrying trend.
The image at the top of this article was generated with AI.