Traveling out of China can be dangerous, especially if you’re going to a place you’ve never been before and haven’t gathered the necessary intelligence to ensure your safety. Here are six security steps high net worth Chinese clients should take when traveling outside of China.
1. Research and Do Intelligence
Before going to a foreign country, it’s essential to gather as much open-source intelligence as possible. You need to know the type of threats and crime in that country or city and evaluate whether you need security based on certain threat levels.
2. Stay Anonymous
Your trip should remain as anonymous as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to stay off social media. They say if you’re going out of town to never post about it on social media because that leaves you open to theft or possible random crimes. The same is especially true for billionaires traveling out of China. While you never want to tell people when you won’t be home, you also don’t want to inform them of your particular whereabouts.
If someone in the country in which you are traveling finds out that you will be at the airport at a particular time, they can easily track you on your social media pages. They can also learn your future whereabouts and predict your behavior using social media. For example, if they notice that while you’re in town that every Wednesday, you go to a specific tea shop, they can track you there and come to harm you or your loved ones.
3. Register Trips with the Government
In the US, we register trips with the State Department, so there’s probably a register to alert the Chinese Government when there’s a problem. When you’re traveling from country to country, you should always make sure to have embassy contacts, consulate contacts, and relationships with the security in those organizations.
4. Receive Alerts
You should be able to receive alerts on each city that you’re traveling to. These alerts should tell you about any crime, terrorist threats, and problems, including civil unrest, in particular cities. For example, if there has been a bomb or a bomb threat in a specific area of the city, you’ll know about it and remember to avoid that area.
5. Get Advice
Before you leave for your trip, you should get quality advice from a security professional. You can get this advice from an expert in the area you’re traveling to, or from a Chinese security professional in the same city in which you live.
It’s important to note that a Chinese security agency may not know everything going on in a US city because of how far away they are. Instead, contacting a protection agency in the area they’re traveling into, will be able to provide them with the necessary intelligence.
Even if you do register for alerts, these alerts could be months outdated, so it’s essential to contact a professional who knows real-time complications and intelligence. These experts could also serve as a backup solution in case you realize after you’ve arrived that you require executive protection.
6. Make Arrangements for Medical Response
When you’re traveling, you’ll need to find information about the nearest hospitals in case of a medical emergency. You will also need to know the best routes, and have your medical files on-hand. You can easily send these over to the hospital yourself so that, in case there is an emergency, they will have the records already there.
