Southeast Asian visitors power growth in visa-free arrivals in China

Travellers from Asean countries account for more than half of the people entering China without a visa

Reading Time:2 minutes

More travellers to China are taking advantage of visa-free arrangements. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:06pm, 18 Sep 2025

Visa-free entries into China by foreign nationals rose by more than half in the first eight months of the year, with visitors from Southeast Asia accounting for a big part of the growth.

The National Immigration Administration (NIA) said on Thursday that foreign nationals made 15.89 million visa-free entries from January to August.

The NIA did not give a total for the number of entries during the period but did say that visa-free entries made up roughly two-thirds of international arrivals, suggesting the total was more than 25 million.

State news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday that nationals from Asean countries made more than 9 million trips to China under visa-free arrangements, accounting for the overwhelming majority of the 10.74 million entries by people from those nations.

One of the major developments in this area was the reciprocal visa-free agreement with Malaysia, which came into effect on July 17.

Since then, Malaysian passport holders have made 180,000 trips to China – 150,000 without visas, according to Xinhua.

Russia is expected to be another major source of visa-free arrivals to China.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x

Southeast Asian visitors power growth in visa-free arrivals in China

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Travellers from Asean countries account for more than half of the people entering China without a visa

Travellers from Asean countries account for more than half of the people entering China without a visa