Koch Executive Temporarily Banned From Leaving China

In early June, a Chinese-American executive at Koch Industries was told he could not leave the immediate vicinity of his hotel in southern China, reports The New York Times.

According to The Times,  he was then interrogated for multiple days, with the discussion hitting on the trade war and souring relations between the United States and China.

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While the authorities told the man that he would not be allowed to leave China, they did not take his passport. After the State Department intervened, tensions subsided and he was able to fly out of the country...Given some of the discussion, two of the people with knowledge of the episode involving the Koch Industries executive said they believed it was an attempt to send a message to Mr. Trump.

But the Times correctly notes that the Kochs are not populists and have objected to Trump's immigration and trade policies. This appears to be part of new general harassment of American corporate executives in the wake of Trump tariffs on Chinese goods.

Koch Industries has major investments in China, where it employs more than 23,000 people. Last year, a Koch subsidiary said it would put more than $1 billion into a chemical plant in Shanghai.

-RW