Speaking from the floor of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on 4 March 2026, Wang Yu—chairman of Shanghai-based Spring Airlines and a CPPCC National Committee member—urged the government to make a decisive leap in its visa-free strategy. Wang contrasted China’s current policy, which unilaterally waives visas for 50 nations with a maximum 30-day stay, with the 60- to 90-day waivers offered by regional competitors such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand.
![Spring Airlines Chairman Tells ‘Two Sessions’ China Must Widen & Lengthen Visa-Free Stays]()
For travellers eager to navigate these shifting rules, VisaHQ provides up-to-date guidance, application support and expedited processing for Chinese visas, TWOV eligibility checks and other entry documentation. Its China portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/) consolidates the latest requirements and offers concierge services that help tourists, business delegations and rotating project teams convert policy changes into confirmed itineraries with minimal friction.
Short stays, he argued, keep long-haul visitors from including multiple Chinese destinations on a single itinerary and deter corporations from positioning medium-term project teams in the mainland. He proposed three concrete changes: 1) add key markets in North America and wider Europe—including the United States, Germany, Italy and Spain—to the unilateral visa-free list; 2) extend the permitted stay to 45–60 days to encourage deeper travel itineraries and short-term assignments; and 3) expand the 240-hour transit-without-visa (TWOV) scheme to more land, rail and sea checkpoints to knit neighbouring supply-chain hubs more tightly to China’s interior. Wang also called for a global marketing push. Many foreign travellers, he said, still assume China’s borders remain hard to navigate three years after the pandemic. He recommended an “Inbound Tourism Content-Creator Support Program” that would subsidise influencers to showcase the ease of entering China under the new rules. Although CPPCC proposals are not binding, the remarks carry weight: Spring Airlines handles more than 20 percent of China’s low-cost international capacity. If adopted, Wang’s blueprint would be the most significant liberalisation of China’s short-stay regime since the post-pandemic reopening in 2024, and would directly benefit multinational firms that rotate staff in and out of the mainland on rapid cycles.
For travellers eager to navigate these shifting rules, VisaHQ provides up-to-date guidance, application support and expedited processing for Chinese visas, TWOV eligibility checks and other entry documentation. Its China portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/) consolidates the latest requirements and offers concierge services that help tourists, business delegations and rotating project teams convert policy changes into confirmed itineraries with minimal friction.
Short stays, he argued, keep long-haul visitors from including multiple Chinese destinations on a single itinerary and deter corporations from positioning medium-term project teams in the mainland. He proposed three concrete changes: 1) add key markets in North America and wider Europe—including the United States, Germany, Italy and Spain—to the unilateral visa-free list; 2) extend the permitted stay to 45–60 days to encourage deeper travel itineraries and short-term assignments; and 3) expand the 240-hour transit-without-visa (TWOV) scheme to more land, rail and sea checkpoints to knit neighbouring supply-chain hubs more tightly to China’s interior. Wang also called for a global marketing push. Many foreign travellers, he said, still assume China’s borders remain hard to navigate three years after the pandemic. He recommended an “Inbound Tourism Content-Creator Support Program” that would subsidise influencers to showcase the ease of entering China under the new rules. Although CPPCC proposals are not binding, the remarks carry weight: Spring Airlines handles more than 20 percent of China’s low-cost international capacity. If adopted, Wang’s blueprint would be the most significant liberalisation of China’s short-stay regime since the post-pandemic reopening in 2024, and would directly benefit multinational firms that rotate staff in and out of the mainland on rapid cycles.
