Washington Deleted the ‘D’ From Its China Warning in 2024. Two Detentions Just Put It Back

In November 2024, the State Department removed a letter from its China travel advisory. Four Americans had just come home (Pastor David Lin, Mark Swidan, Kai Li and one more). Washington marked the occasion by softening the warning: the advisory dropped from Level 3, “reconsider travel,” to Level 2, “exercise increased caution.” The “D” marker for wrongful detention came off with it.

The same month, in Beijing, agents of China’s State Security detained a 54-year-old seismologist. Chen Youlin had traveled to visit family and deliver university lectures. He spent more than a year in pre-trial detention without access to a lawyer. His wife told the Associated Press that Chinese authorities have not allowed her any direct contact with him since the day he was taken.

In March 2026, the State Department designated Chen as wrongfully detained. Three months later, Min Zin, an independent researcher who studies Myanmar, was lured to China under the pretense of academic cooperation and detained at the airport by State Security. He has been held since in residential surveillance at a designated location, a detention system that United Nations human rights bodies have classified as enforced disappearance and torture in itself. The wrongful-detention determination followed on August 20, 2026.

The pressure came from Congress in late September. House China committee chairman John Moolenaar introduced a resolution condemning the detentions of American academics. He was joined by Representatives Stephen Lynch and Young Kim and Senators Ed Markey, Ted Budd, John Curtis and Adam Schiff. It explicitly demanded that the Travel Advisory for China “return to correctly reflect” the assessment. “The Chinese Communist Party has unjustly detained Americans for years, holding them as hostages to bully and coerce our government,” Moolenaar said in a statement. “The wrongful detentions of Youlin Chen and Min Zin are especially egregious as they were lured to China under the false pretense of academic research.”

On September 22, the NGO Safeguard Defenders had already urged Washington to raise the risk rating. Xi Jinping visited Washington in September, and toward the month’s end Trump confirmed he had discussed Min Zin’s release with the Chinese leader. On October 16, Semafor reported the change was coming. On October 19, it came. The advisory was reissued with the D indicator restored; the level stayed at Level 2. A State Department spokesperson told the South China Morning Post that the department “has determined that Americans are at serious risk of wrongful detention in China.”

“China firmly opposes the US side’s attempts to discredit China by citing so-called wrongful detentions as a pretext and updating its travel advisory accordingly,” a Chinese embassy spokesperson told the South China Morning Post, demanding Washington “promptly withdraw its inaccurate travel advisory” and “stop disrupting people-to-people exchanges between China and the US.” The embassy added a counter-charge: American agencies have been harassing and interrogating Chinese nationals entering the United States, especially students refused entry and sent back.

The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation counts 12 Americans currently wrongfully detained in China, some under exit bans, and has assessed 42 cases since 1998. The Dui Hua Foundation estimates at least 200 Americans have faced detention, exit bans or other coercive measures. Russia and Iran, the other known captor countries, sit at Level 4, “Do Not Travel.” China stays at Level 2. Chen’s wife, Rong Yufang, put the next demand plainly: “I am also hopeful that the State Department will raise the travel risk level for China from a 2 to a 3.”

“Chinese officials have left the US no choice but to publicly call them out by warning Americans that it is risky to travel to China,” Rong said in her statement. She thanked Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and said Trump had raised her husband’s case with Xi twice, in Beijing in May and in Washington in September. The two leaders are expected to meet twice more this year.

Twelve Americans are still being held.