An American newspaper reported on Saturday that Beijing had threatened to detain Americans in China in response to the US Justice Department's prosecution of Chinese researchers for hiding their affiliation with the Chinese army.
The Wall Street Journal - citing informed sources - said that Chinese officials have issued repeated warnings in this regard to US government officials through multiple channels.
According to the sources, the Chinese warnings were clear, "If the prosecutions of Chinese scholars in America's courts are not dropped, Americans in China may be classified as violators of Chinese law."
A guidance note for the US State Department dated September 14 warned against traveling to China.
The memo said Beijing was applying arbitrary detention and departure bans with US citizens and others to "gain an advantage in negotiating with foreign governments."
The White House referred questions in this regard to the State Department.
US police officers in front of a Chinese (European) consulate building
"China's arbitrariness"
"It assured the Chinese government - at the highest levels - of its concern about China's arbitrariness in enforcing the exit ban with American citizens and citizens of other countries, and it will continue to do so until it sees a transparent and fair process," the ministry said in a statement.
The administration of US President Donald Trump increasingly accuses China of carrying out cyber piracy and espionage to steal US technical expertise in the technological and military sectors, as part of "a strategy through which it seeks to replace the United States as the largest financial and military power in the world," while China denies these accusations.
Last July, the US Department of Justice said that the FBI had arrested 3 Chinese citizens who had concealed their affiliation with the Chinese army, when they requested visas to conduct research in US educational institutions.
The United States said last month that it had revoked the visas of more than a thousand Chinese citizens under a presidential decision banning entry to students and researchers classified as a threat to security, a measure that Beijing described as a violation of human rights.