China plans to waive visas for seven more countries as part of its ongoing push to attract more tourists to the country and boost its economy.
With traveler numbers this year still only about a third of pre-pandemic levels, China introduced a special “exceptional regime” in late 2023. In an effort to revive tourism, Beijing has begun unilaterally lifting visa barriers to encourage travel, but only a few countries have been lucky.
The idea behind the immigration easing was to “promote the high-quality development of Chinese and foreign personnel exchanges and [achieve] a high level of openness,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told media at the time.
Starting in December 2023, citizens of five EU countries (the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) as well as Malaysians were granted a 15-day visa-free entry to China.