After a COVID hiatus of over two years, China will restart issuing visas to foreigners from March 2023. The news was announced by the Chinese embassy in Washington.
The latest relaxation in travel curbs for foreign arrivals comes amid Beijing gradually breaking away from its strict ‘zero-COVID’ strategy that dominated media headlines till 2022.
As per the embassy notice, In addition to new travel documents being reviewed and approved, visas issued before March 28, 2020 that are still valid will once again allow entry to China.
The updated policy will also enable the resumption of visa-free travel for those arriving on cruise ships in Shanghai, as well as for certain tourist groups from Hong Kong, Macau and countries within the ASEAN limits.
China received 65.7 million international visitors in 2019, as per the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization, before the COVID outbreak forced the country to seal itself off from the rest of the world.
Despite most of the world reopening their economies and borders by 2022 beginning, China maintained its ‘zero-COVID’ stance till late 2022, till rare protests against President Xi Jinping’s government rocked the nation. The phenomenon in November 2022, where the Chinese citizens even called for Xi Jinping’s resignation, was the second biggest civilian upheaval against the country’s Communist government since the 1989 democracy uprising.
In December 2022, China effectively ended the ‘zero-COVID’ regime, resulting in a sudden spike in COVID cases. While Beijing announced around the same time that the inbound travellers arriving in the country from January 8 would no longer need to undergo quarantine measures, it kept in place visa restrictions on foreigners.
The XI Jinping government also said that it would “continue to adjust its visa policy for foreigners visiting China in a scientific and dynamic manner in accordance with…the epidemic situation.”
It then resumed issuing Chinese passports for “tourism” or “overseas visits of friends.”
With cases surging in China around the New Year, neighbouring countries Japan and South Korea reimposed restrictions on Chinese visitors, provoking a tit-for-tat as Beijing issued its own limitations.
Both sides subsequently eased those restrictions as the COVID threat waned.
The Chinese embassy announcement comes just after the conclusion of the country’s National People’s Congress’ momentous session in Beijing, during which Xi Jinping was confirmed for a third term of Presidency, along with his close ally Li Qiang becoming premier.
During the event, Li Qiang also admitted that achieving the country’s economic growth target of “around 5%” would be “no easy task.”
China posted just 3% of GDP growth in 2022, missing its stated target of around 5.5% by a wide margin as the economy was strained under the twin impact of COVID and the property crisis.