Beijing, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Recently, China, Singapore and Thailand have signed agreements on mutual visa exemption, and China's unilateral visa exemption and mutual visa exemption to foreign countries have been continuously increased. With the continuous expansion of China's visa-free "circle of friends", China and more and more countries have entered the "visa-free era", Chinese citizens are becoming more and more convenient to leave the country, the "gold content" of Chinese passports is getting higher and higher, and China's open and confident national image is becoming more and more distinct.
So far, China has concluded visa exemption agreements covering different passports with 157 countries, agreements or arrangements with 44 countries on visa simplification, and full visa exemption with 23 countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Maldives and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, more than 60 countries and regions have granted visa-free or visa-on-arrival convenience to Chinese citizens. These policies will help facilitate personnel exchanges between China and relevant countries and strengthen exchanges and cooperation between China and relevant countries. Euronews commented that "the visa-free policy has released a positive signal that China will further open up to the outside world and welcome more tourists to visit China".
China's optimization of visa policy is an important measure for the high-quality development of China's services and opening up to the outside world. In today's globalization, personnel exchanges between China and foreign countries are crucial to promote the coordinated development of the global industrial chain. There is no doubt that the new visa-free policy will promote exchanges and cooperation in various fields such as culture, commerce and trade, science and technology, provide more convenient communication channels for entrepreneurs, scholars and tourists from relevant countries, and contribute to the sharing and complementarity of resources in various fields. Malaysia's Asia Television Executive Editor-in-Chief Lee Bi Shan pointed out that 2024 is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China, and the implementation of mutual visa exemption will surely drive exchanges between the two peoples, whether in tourism, business cooperation or cultural exchanges, it can bring more positive cooperation.
Thai Prime Minister Saitha Thaksin (front row, right) greets Chinese tourists at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport on September 25, 2023. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Laheng) The positive effects of the "visa-free era" are constantly emerging. As one of the world's largest outbound travel markets, the expansion of China's visa-free policy will further drive Chinese tourists to travel. The head of the United Nations World Tourism Organization said a few days ago that China's visa-free policy will help the world tourism industry to pick up again, and the vigorous development of China's tourism industry will also drive the common development of tourism in neighboring countries. After China and Singapore and China and Thailand reached a mutual visa exemption agreement, during the Spring Festival, the travel orders of Chinese tourists to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and the travel orders of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand tourists to China increased significantly year-on-year.
The "visa-free era" is an inevitable extension of China's opening up logic in the new era. Chinese believe that the more open a country is, the more developed and confident it is, and the more open it is, the more it can promote the common development of all countries in the world. From actively building various open platforms to share China's development opportunities with other countries, to making every effort to optimize the protection of foreign investment and intellectual property rights, and accelerating the construction of a market-oriented, law-based and international first-class business environment, to working with all parties to build the Belt and Road Initiative with high quality, we will continue to expand cooperation and ...... with other countries in the fields of infrastructure, industry, economy and trade, and scientific and technological innovationThe logic of China's opening up to the outside world has always been the same. Spain's El País newspaper reported that China has taken concrete measures to promote tourism development, promote economic and people-to-people exchanges, and "demonstrate its sincerity in continuously expanding its opening up to the outside world."
The arrival of the "visa-free era" has made the "two-way travel" between China and the world smoother. Chinese it is more convenient to go abroad, it will be easier for foreigners to go deep into various parts of China to understand China's history, culture, science and technology and development achievements, to experience the vitality of China's land, the warmth and friendliness of the Chinese people, and the fireworks of the Chinese people, and to write more wonderful stories of Chinese and foreign people in the new era in the deepening mutual understanding.