Westerners are increasingly scared of traveling to China as threat of detention rises

As President Xi breeds a culture of nationalism and forges increasingly hostile relations with Western governments, some fear that if a diplomatic spat between their government and Beijing occurred while they were in China they could become a target.

The American professor, who for decades made multiple trips a year to China and was last there in 2018, hasn't focused his career on Tibet or Taiwan -- lightning-rod issues which attract Beijing's ire at lightning-quick speed -- but he has written about cultural diversity and student protests in mainland China, and appeared on panels with people he says the Communist Party is "clearly upset with." Three years ago, that made the California-based academic wonder if his visa application to China might be rejected.