Half of Americans think our visa/visitor/immigration regime is capricious and unfair, and the other half wants it to be worse. As part of the former group, I ap

Half of Americans think our visa/visitor/immigration regime is capricious and unfair, and the other half wants it to be worse. As part of the former group, I apologize on behalf of my countrymen. But Americans are not forbidden from visiting Iran and there is nothing the US government will do to me if I take a holiday there (and survive the experience). Cuba seems a bit more on point, but it's worth mentioning that the point is not to prevent travel there, but to prevent money from flowing there. And even that's incredibly leaky - pretty much everyone I know has been to Cuba at least once. I should have included the full quote: > Americans and Europeans may at that point be de-facto barred from visiting China by their own governments, so seeing the still-gleaming cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou up close won’t be an option. It's not like the US State Dept is afraid that Americans are going to realize the socialist paradise of Cuba. The only circumstance you could imagine US travel to China banned would be the kind of sanctions that prevent all economic activity with China first - which haven't even been applied to pariah states like Iran or Russia. And it's worth pointing out that Europeans freely travel to Cuba. The idea that the US government would prevent citizens from traveling to China because they're afraid that citizens will see it as some sort of gleaming paradise is nonsense on its face, especially to someone who grew up here.