On November 24th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China announced that it would try out a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from six countries: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Shortly after the news was announced, France and Germany respectively responded to this decision.
According to the French newspaper Echo, the French Foreign Ministry announced on the 24th that China people with master’s degrees, regardless of whether their diplomas are from France or China, will be able to obtain a five-year travel visa from France. One of the conditions is that you have studied in France for at least one semester. This measure will allow its beneficiaries to travel freely between the two countries and may attract more French students to France.
On the other hand, according to the website of the Belgian Politico Europe, Fu Rong, the German ambassador to China, said that the above decision will provide “unprecedented convenience” for many German citizens to travel to China. She posted on social media platform X: “This will be an important improvement in the mobility of our citizens and deepen the personal, cultural and economic relations between China and Europe.” In addition, she also said, “We hope that the China government can implement the measures announced today for all EU member States.”
As soon as the visa-free news came out, major European media and institutions made positive comments on it. In a press release, the European Chamber of Commerce in China “welcomes” this statement and “hopes that other European countries will be added to this list soon”, which emphasizes that “this is a practical and effective improvement and will also enhance the confidence of enterprises”. From this, we can easily see that relevant European countries welcome this visa-free pilot policy and hope that more countries will be added to the signature-free list. Whether other EU countries will join in the future and whether more visa-free beneficiary countries will respond to this policy, let us pay attention to it together.
Post time: Nov-29-2023