Disturbing WSJ feature about a subject that has long intrigued me WRT my Chinese-born daughter, Vonne Mei. Whenever you hear about "foreign nationals" being arrested in China, it is almost invariably a China-born Chinese who later got citizenry elsewhere and then returned for work, only to suffer this jeopardy.
Frankly, it is why we readopted Vonne Mei in US Courts.
Bottom line: no matter your citizenry, if you're China-born Chinese and you're in-country, you can suddenly find yourself in a grey zone--but only so far as the Chinese government is concerned.
When things go well and there are opportunities to be grasped, the overseas Chinese, with their inside-track appreciation of the distinctive modus operandi in the People's Republic, ride high. When the complex nexus of national interest, party-family ties, local power brokers and influence peddlers is antagonized, however, these intuitive insiders, the commercial compradors with local knowledge, are particularly vulnerable. The protective sheath of foreign citizenship proves to be little more than a gossamer.
And yeah, I do find that notion a bit scary when considering any return visit with my daughter, not so much that she might get in trouble but that I could inadvertently do the same by antagonizing someone powerful. I think it's a rather far-fetched concern; it's just not something I'd have to worry about traveling anywhere else with her.
Why? Because, it's still the case that the Chinese government retains--in its mind--the prerogative to declare what is and isn't fair according to China's unique situation and national needs:
The Chinese authorities claim a monopoly right to define and interpret the nation's unique conditions. In reality, social change, evolving attitudes and widespread aspirations continue to challenge the status quo.
But the Party claims the right to decide, when it chooses, to declare what any Chinese, caught on its soil, owes the state--no matter the citizenship. The dynamic has a sort of mafia-like ring to it--as in, no matter how you may view your new situation, the Chinese government retains the right to pull you back into the family and to punish you at will.
How long can that version of Chinese exceptionalism last? Hopefully not much longer, because it represents the myopic selfishness of a scared state, and the Chinese people deserve something a helluva lot more mature.