On July 31, 2026, the State Council promulgated the Regulations of the State Council on Exit and Entry Administration (State Council Order No. 841) (hereinafter the New Regulations), effective September 15, 2026.
I. How the New Regulations Supplement and Expand the 2013 Exit and Entry Administration Law
The New Regulations supplement and expand the existing framework under Article 12 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law:
1. The New Regulations refine the existing exit and entry administration system
Article 12 of the current Exit and Entry Administration Law sets out six circumstances under which Chinese citizens may not leave the country, the sixth of which provides for ‘other circumstances in which exit is prohibited by law or administrative regulations’. Article 4 of the New Regulations adds circumstances involving obtaining exit/entry documents by fraud or receiving administrative detention for illegal exit/entry, thereby refining the aforementioned legal provision.
2. The New Regulations complete the interface between the Exit and Entry Administration Law, the Export Control Law and the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law
Item 5 of Article 12 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law provides for the restriction on exit in circumstances that ‘may endanger national security and interests, where the relevant competent department of the State Council decides to prohibit exit’, however this is a general provision. Drawing on the current needs of exit and entry administration, the New Regulations interface with the Export Control Law and the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, further clarifying the applicable objects and scope:
(1) The Export Control Law clarifies that export control is imposed on controlled items, and that acts endangering national security and interests shall also be handled and penalized in accordance with the relevant laws and administrative regulations. The Regulations on the Administration of Technology Import and Export set out specific rules governing technology import and export administration.
Article 4(3) of the New Regulations lists violations of the export control and technology import/export administration rules — such as ‘illegal technology outflow’ and the ‘transfer of critical industrial technology overseas’ — that may harm national industrial or technological security as circumstances in which exit is prohibited. Unlike the exit restrictions for obtaining documents by fraud or committing crimes abroad, the export control clause does not set a time limit such as ‘six months to three years’. Because the New Regulations impose no upper limit on the duration of exit restrictions in such circumstances, the intensity of restraint under the export control procedure becomes the strongest of the entire regulations.
(2) Article 6 of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law provides that: ‘The relevant departments of the State Council may, according to their respective duties and division of work, decide to adopt one or more of the following measures against the individuals and organizations specified in Articles 4 and 5 of this Law as the actual circumstances require: (1) refusing to issue visas, denying entry, revoking visas, or deportation’.
The New Regulations further clarify that circumstances where ‘a foreigner has been placed on a countermeasure list, the Unreliable Entity List, the Malicious Entity List, or has been subject to countermeasure or restrictive measures’ constitute grounds for exit restriction, as provided in Article 5(3) of the New Regulations.
3. The New Regulations clarify that persons exiting or entering must cooperate with inspection and provide relevant documents, materials, electronic data and other information
Article 6(3) of the Exit and Entry Administration Law provides that exit-entry border inspection authorities may conduct border inspection of articles carried by persons exiting or entering the country. Article 3(2) of the New Regulations further clarifies that immigration and visa authorities may, when verifying the identity and application grounds of persons exiting or entering, inquire into particular circumstances and require them to present or provide documents, materials, electronic data and other information, and such persons shall cooperate.
4. The New Regulations establish a filing system for exit and entry intermediary service agencies
The New Regulations clarify that filing administration applies to the agencies and personnel that accept entrustment from persons exiting or entering and engage in intermediary services such as exit/entry policy consulting, document processing on behalf of others, and procedure handling. Agencies engaged in exit and entry intermediary services shall be staffed with personnel possessing the relevant professional knowledge and shall have premises and financial safeguards commensurate with their intermediary service activities. In terms of market access, overseas enterprises and organizations may not provide exit and entry intermediary services within China.
II. Trigger Procedures and Remedies for Exit Restriction Measures under the New Regulatory Framework
(i) Trigger mechanism
Under Chinese law, exit restriction is not a legal measure of a single specific nature; it has different trigger mechanisms depending on the deciding authority, the legal procedure involved and the applicable legal basis. For example, in criminal cases, imposing exit restrictions on a criminal suspect requires a decision by the public security organ responsible for investigating the case. For cases involving national security violations or crimes, the decision is made by the national security organ. For circumstances in the New Regulations concerning ‘violations of export control, technology import and export administration rules that may harm national industrial or technological security’, the decision is made by the commerce department that bears the administrative duties for import and export administration.
(ii) Notification procedures
Pursuant to Article 6 of the New Regulations, the deciding authority ‘in principle’ shall notify the person concerned in writing of the exit restriction decision and the corresponding facts, reasons, legal basis and remedies. When enforcing exit-entry inspection, the immigration administration authority shall notify the person concerned in accordance with the notice from the deciding authority.
The exception is that if the deciding authority considers that notification may impede national security or the handling of a criminal case, it may dispense with notification. In practice, there have been cases where persons subject to exit restrictions were only notified verbally by the immigration authority when going through exit formalities at the airport.
(iii) Complaints and remedies
For remedies against exit restriction measures, the legal nature of the exit restriction must be determined based on the deciding authority and the legal procedure under which the decision was made. If the exit restriction decision is a specific administrative act made by an administrative organ, the person subject to the restriction may apply for administrative reconsideration or file an administrative lawsuit. For exit restriction decisions made by supervisory organs, national security organs, public security organs and other departments in non-administrative cases, remedy generally needs to be sought through the complaint (appeal) procedure.
As for the circumstances in Article 4(3) of the New Regulations, since the authority deciding on exit restrictions for Chinese citizens who violate export control, technology import/export administration rules or may harm national industrial or technological security is the State Council’s administrative organ in charge of commerce, we are inclined to regard this as a specific administrative act, and the person subject to the restriction may seek its revocation through administrative reconsideration or administrative litigation. However, actual practice remains to be observed.
III. Practical Impact and Compliance Recommendations Following the Promulgation of the New Regulations
After the New Regulations take effect, it cannot be ruled out that the Ministry of Commerce and other regulators will conduct special inspections of risks related to export control or technology import/export. We recommend that enterprises pay close attention to risks involving sensitive, cutting-edge technologies and cross-border data transfers and incorporate employee exits into their export control compliance systems. They should carry out classified and tiered assessments of outbound personnel based on the employees’ scope of duties and the sensitivity of the technology involved, while retaining review records from the assessment process. To guide the precise implementation of the compliance management measures, enterprises are also advised to closely monitor updates to China’s export control catalogues, catalogues of prohibited and restricted technology import/export and the Unreliable Entity List.
There is a much-discussed provision that grants police the authority to inspect travelers’ personal electronic devices and we are of the view that the volume of exit-entry inspections handled daily at China’s ports is enormous. Unless a person has been identified in advance by the authorities as a key target or obvious anomalies are discovered during inspection, the police have insufficient manpower to conduct indiscriminate spot checks of the electronic devices of persons exiting or entering. Since September 15, 2026 when the New Regulations formally took effect, there has been no noticeable change in exit and entry administration work, as compared with the past.
For further information, please contact:
ZOU, Weining, Partner, JunHe
