[spwa4]

Depends what you mean. Communism loves bureaucracy and so there are 10 different system "totally not cooperating" to prevent leaving. In China you need permission to leave the country (or even your town), and so there is no law change. The big bureaucracies are referred to as "Hokou" (within China) and "Exit-entry administration" for international. So no direct announcement, everything is under direct control of Xi. You see, it was always illegal to go outside of the country without Xi's approval and those approvals have mostly stopped coming.

But here's one source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/02/18/china-right-leave-countr...

[janalsncm]

Houkou does not prevent a Chinese citizen from leaving a town. People move around all the time. Houkou is about registering to receive public services in the new city within China.

In any case Houkou doesn’t prevent a person from leaving the country. A passport does, but this is the same in all countries.

> You see, it was always illegal to go outside of the country without Xi's approval and those approvals have mostly stopped coming.

There are hundreds of millions of trips out of China every year. A good number of them to the US for work. That fact is hard to square with what you’re saying.

[spwa4]

That would be "A distinction without a difference" ... a thing bureaucracies are positively excellent at.

There's an old Soviet joke: it's allowed! It's just that you haven't submitted your request, in triplicate, in our office in Siberia, open from 24:00 to 24:01 on Februari 30th every year! But it's allowed, with the proper permission. Just go get it!

[triceratops]

Except that there is a difference

[triceratops]

Yeah sorry no that's not the same thing as "made emigration illegal". When you say that I think of Soviet Russia with its exit visas that people hardly ever got.

[spwa4]

It kind of is. You try to leave, the police stops you. You go to court, the court decides against you. What's not "lawful" about that (aside from the very unjust nature of China's laws)

[triceratops]

For it to be true there would have to be evidence that it's default disallowed. Or that most people can't get passports at all, no matter what.

[spwa4]

No country locks of passports 100%. And, look, you asked for a source, the hrw article provides a source.

[triceratops]

Every country has laws about who can get passports. In countries without proper rule of law this is often arbitrary. Does that mean all those countries have made emigration illegal?

[spwa4]

If the law also says you can't leave without passports, like Chinese law, then yes, obviously.