BEIJING: China will offer a visa-free policy to ordinary passport holders from five Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries – Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay – between June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026 in order to facilitate people-to-people exchanges, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a regular press conference on Thursday.
Ordinary passport holders from these five countries can enjoy visa exemptions when coming to China for business, tourism, visits to relatives and friends, or exchanges and transit for no more than 30 days, Lin said.
“The five countries are important economies in LAC, and the visa-free policy underscores the importance China attaches to cooperation with these countries,” Sun Yanfeng, director of Latin American research at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The new visa-free policy will facilitate people-to-people exchanges and greatly boost economic and trade cooperation, Sun said, noting that this will especially benefit small and medium-sized enterprises in LAC by making it more convenient for them to expand into the market in China.
Trade between China and LAC countries exceeded $500 billion for the first time in 2024, which was more than 40 times that of the beginning of this century, the Xinhua News Agency reported in May.
During the fourth ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum in Beijing, China announced that it had decided to offer a visa-free policy to five countries in LAC, and would expand the policy to cover more regional countries in due course, according to Xinhua.
Wang Xiaoyu, a specially appointed expert from the World Tourism Cities Federation, told the Global Times that China’s latest expansion of the visa-free policy sends a very positive signal.
Although it will be difficult for LAC countries to become major sources for inbound tourism to China, the new policy plays a bigger role in boosting commercial and cultural exchanges, Wang said, noting that the policy further showcases China’s openness, policy inclusiveness and cultural diversity to the world.
According to data Chinese online travel agency Qunar sent to the Global Times on Thursday, bookings for air tickets by travelers from these five countries on the platform grew by 15 percent year-on-year during this year’s May Day holiday (May 1-5).
On the platform, there are direct flights shown only between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Beijing in June, while people from other cities of origin from the five countries will require two or three transfers, with tickets costing about 6,000 to 7,000 yuan ($832.11 to $970.8).
China remains committed to high-level opening-up and will introduce more measures to facilitate cross-border travel. “We also welcome more foreign friends to make good use of the visa-free and visa facilitation policies to visit China, take a look around, and experience the colorful, passionate and vibrant China,” Lin said.
In recent years, China’s visa exemption policies have given a boost to inbound travel, with “China Travel” trending on social media platforms.
Since the 240-hour visa-free transit policy took effect in December 2024, Chinese ports have welcomed more than 9 million inbound foreign travelers – a 40.2 percent increase year-on-year, according to data from the National Immigration Administration released in April. Among these visitors, 6.57 million entered visa-free, accounting for more than 71 percent of the total, the data showed.
