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Starting Nov. 30, travelers from Bulgaria, Romania, Malta,
Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Estonia, Latvia and Japan
will be able to enter China for up to 30 days without a visa,
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
That will bring to 38 the number of countries that have been
granted visa-free access since last year. Only three countries
had visa-free access previously, and theirs had been eliminated
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The permitted length of stay for visa-free entry is being
increased from the previous 15 days, Lin said, and people
participating in exchanges will be eligible for the first time.
China has been pushing people-to-people exchange between
students, academics and others to try to improve its sometimes
strained relations with other countries.
China strictly restricted entry during the pandemic and ended
its restrictions much later than most other countries. It
restored the previous visa-free access for citizens of Brunei
and Singapore in July 2023, and then expanded visa-free entry to
six more countries — France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Spain and Malaysia — on Dec. 1 of last year.
The program has since been expanded in tranches. Some countries
have announced visa-free entry for Chinese citizens, notably
Thailand, which wants to bring back Chinese tourists.
For the three months from July through September this year,
China recorded 8.2 million entries by foreigners, of which 4.9
million were visa-free, the official Xinhua News Agency said,
quoting a Foreign Ministry consular official.
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