At a pre-session press conference for the annual CPPCC meeting on 4 March 2026, spokesman Liu Jieyi delivered fresh evidence that China’s border-opening drive is gaining traction. During the nine-day Spring Festival holiday, visa-free entries climbed 75.6 percent year-on-year, he told reporters, crediting recent unilateral waivers for Canada, the United Kingdom and multiple Gulf and Latin-American states. Offshore duty-free sales in Hainan jumped 30.8 percent over the same break, underscoring the commercial upside of easier entry. Liu framed the numbers as an early dividend of “institutional opening-up” that now extends beyond tariffs to rules, standards and immigration management.
![Visa-Free Arrivals Up 75 % as CPPCC Pledges ‘Door Will Only Open Wider’]()
For travelers and corporate mobility teams navigating these shifts, VisaHQ can simplify the process of entering China by providing up-to-date guidance, online application tools and concierge support for everything from tourist visas to work permits. Its dedicated China hub (https://www.visahq.com/china/) tracks the newest exemptions and e-visa pilots, ensuring applicants capitalize on Beijing’s expanding facilitation measures without administrative headaches.
The Hainan Free-Trade Port’s island-wide customs model, launched late 2025, was singled out for smoothing tourist flows. Looking ahead, CPPCC members will table proposals to deepen the 12 National Immigration Administration facilitation measures, expand foreign-friendly service centres and accelerate e-visa pilots—part of a broader push to embed mobility into the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30). For multinational employers, the spokesman’s message is two-fold: China will continue widening its visa-free circle; and free-trade zones such as Hainan will double as talent-recruitment magnets through lighter customs and tax regimes.
For travelers and corporate mobility teams navigating these shifts, VisaHQ can simplify the process of entering China by providing up-to-date guidance, online application tools and concierge support for everything from tourist visas to work permits. Its dedicated China hub (https://www.visahq.com/china/) tracks the newest exemptions and e-visa pilots, ensuring applicants capitalize on Beijing’s expanding facilitation measures without administrative headaches.
The Hainan Free-Trade Port’s island-wide customs model, launched late 2025, was singled out for smoothing tourist flows. Looking ahead, CPPCC members will table proposals to deepen the 12 National Immigration Administration facilitation measures, expand foreign-friendly service centres and accelerate e-visa pilots—part of a broader push to embed mobility into the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30). For multinational employers, the spokesman’s message is two-fold: China will continue widening its visa-free circle; and free-trade zones such as Hainan will double as talent-recruitment magnets through lighter customs and tax regimes.
