Burner Phones
A year and a half ago, before a trip to China, I spoke with several people in Washington who know that country far better than I. They all gave me the same advice. My electronic devices would be examined by Chinese authorities the moment I set foot in the country, they warned. I should leave my electronics at home, they said, and take only a burner phone.
I recalled those conversations a few days ago at a meeting of the Maritime Research Alliance in Denmark. During my trip, I learned that the Copenhagen Business School, one of the country’s leading educational institutions, has advised its staff to bring only burner phones when visiting the United States. If they carry other devices, the university has warned, immigration authorities could inspect the contents and use them as an excuse to deny entry into the country.
This is frightening. And dangerous.
At the moment, the U.S. government seems very hostile to foreigners, supposedly in the interest of national security. “Visiting America is not an entitlement. It is a privilege extended to those who respect our laws and values,” Secretary of State Rubio insists.
This tough-at-the-border attitude is supposedly protecting national security. Over decades, however, nothing has protected America’s national security more than its openness. Around the world there has been a deep well of public sympathy for the United States. Its openness to diverse points of view is one reason people in other countries have sought to visit, study, and do business in the United States. By giving visitors reason to fear that they may be detained by an immigration officer for expressing views that may differ from Mr. Rubio’s or for having a suspect name in their contact books, the United States is doing nothing more than isolating itself from the world.
The story of the French scientist headed to a conference of space researchers who was turned back by immigration officers at Houston Intercontinental Airport is well known in Europe. Companies, including U.S.-based companies, are discouraging foreign executives from traveling there, especially if they are Muslim or Chinese. “Danes really used to admire the United States,” one Danish acquaintance told me. “Now, not so much.” That ought to worry us much more than a critical sentence on a visitor’s computer.
Tags: China, travel