Latest news with #zero-Covid
Bangkok Post
17-07-2025
- Business
- Bangkok Post
China's visa-free boom picks up steam as entries soar in first half of 2025
China's expanded efforts to encourage visitors continued to pay off in the first half of 2025, with the number of visa-free foreign entries rising by more than half compared to the same period a year earlier. Foreign nationals made 38 million trips in and out of the country, a 30% increase year on year, according to the administration. "Visa facilitation measures have effectively attracted large numbers of foreign visitors for tourism and business, driving sustained growth in inbound consumption," administration spokeswoman Lu Ning said. A previous long-standing policy allowed travellers without a Chinese visa to transit through the country visa-free for up to 24 hours if they held valid travel documents with onwards confirmation to a third country, consistent with international practice. In the 2010s, Chinese cities such as Xiamen and Kunming introduced 72-hour or 144-hour visa-free transit to attract foreign visitors, though travel was restricted within those individual cities. In late 2023, after three years of tough pandemic restrictions under the zero-Covid policy, China began expanding its visa-free entry policy to lure foreigners in a bid to boost tourism, stimulate a sluggish domestic economy and encourage people-to-people exchanges. The visa-free transit policy has since been expanded to cover more countries and regions, with travel permitted nationwide. In December, the administration added 21 ports for visa-free entry and exit, and extended the permitted stays for foreigners from 72 or 144 hours to a uniform 240 hours, or 10 days. The policy now applies to 24 provinces. During their stays, eligible travellers are allowed to take part in tours, business, exchange visits or family visits, but activities such as employment, study or journalism still require prior approval and appropriate visas. Lu said China would introduce "more diverse and effective" entry-exit policies alongside residence regulations to make it easier for people visiting from other countries. With Indonesia included in the scheme as of June, China's 240-hour transit visa exemption now covers 55 countries, including most European nations along with the United States, Canada and Australia. Nine more countries - including Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Oman - have been granted unilateral visa-free entry to China, meaning the other countries do not necessarily offer Chinese nationals the same treatment. To date, 47 countries benefit from unilateral visa exemptions, spanning parts of Europe, Oceania, Asia and South America. Eligible passport holders from these nations may enter China for business, tourism or sightseeing for up to 30 days. In the first half of this year, a total of 333 million cross-border trips were recorded by the Chinese authorities, a 15.8% increase over the same time in 2024. The journeys included 159 million trips by mainland residents, an increase of 15.9% from the previous year, and 136 million trips by Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan residents - up 12.2% from the same period last year, according to the immigration administration.
France 24
22-05-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Zhang Weili keen to wow home crowd at first mainland post-Covid UFC event
Zhang, the first Chinese fighter to win a UFC title and current strawweight champion, is the face of MMA in a country where millions of dollars have been poured into the sport's top promotion. The Shanghai Fight Night announced on Thursday is the first event on the mainland since UFC's ambitions there were hampered by the tight travel and quarantine restrictions of the zero-Covid era. UFC held a Fight Night in semi-autonomous Macau in November but otherwise its last event in China was in Shenzhen in 2019 -- where Zhang took the title for the first time with an upset knockout of champion Jessica Andrade in just 42 seconds. "Competing on home soil feels completely different," Zhang told AFP, saying she was "really looking forward" to fighting in Shanghai. "When you step into the arena with a roaring home crowd behind you, it gives you an incredible boost of energy. So when I won the championship in Shenzhen, the atmosphere was absolutely electrifying." UFC has not confirmed the line-up for the Shanghai event, which will be held on August 23 at the vast Shanghai Indoor Stadium, but Zhang would be a huge omission in a country where she is a household name. 'Priority market' China is one of UFC's "priority markets" globally, Kevin Chang, its head in Asia, told AFP. The 2019 launch of a state-of-the-art performance institute in Shanghai, aimed at developing Asian MMA, was a $13 million statement of that interest. However, China's strict border controls during the pandemic meant the cancellation of most international sports events there until the policies were lifted at the end of 2022. A planned Shanghai Fight Night in December the following year was relocated to Las Vegas less than a month beforehand because of "logistical issues". "There were some hurdles along the way, but I think we learned a lot from that," Chang said. "We've had such a warm reception here in Shanghai this time around... it's been night and day," he said. Chang said some of China's local governments had also expressed interest in hosting UFC events. "This is the next frontier. I think we're going to continue to grow and there's a lot of room to grow." Zhang said she thought the future for the sport was bright. "So many Chinese athletes are joining the UFC now... I'm confident the sport will continue to grow here," she said. Fellow UFC fighter Song Yadong, who is ranked fifth in his bantamweight class, agreed. He is also raring to fight in Shanghai and said he thought the UFC fan base in China had multiplied 10 times since the 2019 Shenzhen bout. "I think the biggest change is that we have our own champions, such as Zhang Weili," he said. © 2025 AFP
HKFP
22-05-2025
- Sport
- HKFP
UFC to hold first event in mainland China since pandemic with Shanghai fight
Ultimate Fighting Championship will hold its first event in mainland China since the Covid-19 pandemic, it said Thursday, announcing a Fight Night in Shanghai this summer. The top MMA promotion has poured resources into developing the China market and has a multimillion-dollar performance institute in Shanghai. But its ambitions were hampered by the tight travel and quarantine restrictions of China's zero-Covid era, which led to the cancellation of most international sports events in the country until the policies were lifted at the end of 2022. A planned Shanghai Fight Night in December the following year was relocated less than a month beforehand to Las Vegas because of 'logistical issues'. Kevin Chang, UFC's head in Asia, said this year's event will take place on August 23. The Octagon returns to Shanghai! 👋 #UFCShanghai & the #RTU4 semifinals are headed to China! — UFC (@ufc) May 22, 2025 'This promises to be an action-packed weekend that will showcase both the city and our sport, and China power, to the world,' he told a press conference. UFC held a Fight Night in semi-autonomous Macau in November, but its last event in mainland China was in 2019 in Shenzhen. However, it has maintained a presence in the country through its performance institute, which was opened in 2019 to develop Asian mixed martial artists. The centre has a partnership with the Chinese Olympic Committee.
South China Morning Post
14-03-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Chinese cities call for bids to dismantle makeshift Covid hospitals and recycle materials
Several Chinese cities have opened the bidding for firms to tear down makeshift hospitals built quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic , according to domestic media outlet Caixin. Advertisement Local authorities have been working to remove the facilities, with materials and equipment up for auction since last year, according to Caixin which cited public resource trading platforms. The former makeshift hospitals, known as fangcang , to be removed are mostly those assembled from containers and placed in suburbs. Local authorities, supported mainly by government funds, aim to recycle materials and equipment from the facilities. 03:49 Life inside China's rapidly built hospitals in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak Life inside China's rapidly built hospitals in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak Under China's zero-Covid policy, a large number of temporary hospitals were set up to achieve Beijing's goal of accommodating all Covid-19 patients, regardless of how severe their symptoms were. In late 2022, mandatory quarantine requirements were lifted and makeshift hospitals across the country were left empty. Domestic media reports have noted that dealing with these temporary buildings has been a 'difficult problem to solve' for local governments. Over the past two years, hundreds of makeshift hospitals have been transformed, with some becoming official medical facilities and others dismantled. According to the Caixin report, the bidding documents show that some cities require contractors to carry out protective dismantling of reusable materials and equipment before transferring some of the materials to government departments that will coordinate their recycling by state-owned enterprises. Advertisement Other cities say the materials belong to the winning bidder that dismantles the buildings and restores the site. In a case in Dongguan in southern China's Guangdong province, a local recycling company this month won the bid to dispose of a facility's electrical cables for about 5.9 million yuan (US$815,000).
NBC News
05-02-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Chinese migrant smuggled to Florida shares why she was desperate to flee to U.S.
During China's Covid lockdowns, a woman who had lived in a busy metropolitan area for most of her life and her then-husband quickly grew critical of the country's 'zero-Covid' policy. They spoke out but faced retaliation from authorities, leading her to flee to the U.S. last month. The woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of further admonishment, didn't take a typical route. Many migrants from China come to the U.S. through the Darien Gap, a stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama they cross on their way north. Instead, she took a boat from the Bahamas, she said. She said she traveled last month, flying from China to London to the Bahamas, then boarding a boat to Coral Gables, Florida, in a quest to enter the U.S. and apply for asylum. She recalled encountering rough seas, remote islands — and then Border Patrol. She was then detained at the end of her journey in Florida, she told NBC News exclusively. 'I knew it's dangerous, but I had no other choice,' she said in Mandarin from Customs and Border Protection custody at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, where she's being held. The woman said that after critiquing the government, she was harassed and persecuted by authorities as a result. She said she felt she had to leave and has retained an attorney in the U.S. to oversee her asylum claim. 'China has no rule of law, no human rights and the people are governed by an emperor,' she said, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. 'All our freedoms have been stripped away and there's nothing left.' Her journey came to an end on Jan. 17, just days before President Donald Trump's inauguration and increasing arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in cities across the country. The actions appeared to portend Trump's promise to enact mass deportations when in office. The woman from China was among 30 people taken into custody in Coral Gables as part of an investigation into a possible human smuggling or trafficking operation, authorities said. Twenty-one of the individuals were from China. More than 35,000 Chinese migrants crossed the southern border in 2023, but crossings have dropped significantly since then due to stricter enforcement on both the U.S. and Mexican sides. As a result, alternate smuggling routes — such as this woman's path through the Bahamas — may be growing more popular. The migrants were found in a U-Haul van, and the people suspected of being behind the operation were placed in custody, Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak said. Police said they were alerted by a security guard for a nearby homeowners association, who told police he thought an abduction was taking place. Also in Coral Gables, on Jan. 28 officers intercepted launched an investigation after intercepting several vans transporting more than two dozen Chinese migrants. Police are trying to determine if both incidents were smuggling or human trafficking operations and whether they might be connected. 'Smuggling is a criminal assistance to somebody who illegally wants to enter the country,' Hudak said at a news conference last month. 'The human trafficking side is really not, they may have started off trying to enter the country and they get into a nefarious act where individuals are bringing them here for indentured servitude, criminal activity.' Routes through the Bahamas have drawn interest over the past few years, though those patterns can be cyclical. In New Providence, the Bahamas' most populous island, officials apprehended 4,949 foreign nationals in 2022, more than two times that of the year prior. The number cooled to 3,702 apprehensions in 2023, according to an annual report from the country's Department of Immigration. For Chinese migrants in particular, the number apprehended in Miami so far for fiscal year 2025, which began in October, has already reached almost three-quarters of what it was in 2024. Experts say new routes could become more common, with new policies on the southern border potentially prompting migrants to find alternative paths to the United States. Trump's administration has said it will shut down routes like the Darien Gap, though it's not within his authority to do so. The Bahamas is one route that does not require a visa from many countries to enter. Doris Meissner, the director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, told NBC News that she wasn't surprised by migrants going through the Bahamas. She said new administrations or policies can prompt a 'wait-and-see' period among smugglers. And she said there are likely other routes being tested across different geographic locations. 'The smugglers wait to see how the policies are actually going to be implemented, whether they stick. And that's certainly happening right now at the Southwest border,' said Meissner, the former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. 'Typically during that kind of a period or following it, there will be efforts to find some other kinds of routes.' Under the new administration, questions remain over how newly arrived undocumented immigrants will be dealt with. Trump recently signed an executive action suspending asylum for those crossing through the southern border. Last month, the Department of Homeland Security expanded its use of 'expedited removal,' a process that allows CBP officials to deport individuals without an immigration court hearing or other appearance before a judge. A $32,000 journey The Chinese migrant, who's awaiting an asylum hearing, said she connected with her smugglers online. 'All the information needed to make the journey can be found there,' she said in Mandarin. She said the people overseeing the operation are based in the southeast coastal province of Fujian in China. Since the 1980s, smuggling has been a common method of entry for immigrants specifically from Fujian. With the help of technology and through apps like WeChat, modern smugglers might communicate and make handoffs at different points, create fake documents for travelers and find lesser-traveled routes. Smuggling 'is the traditional industry for the Fujianese,' she said. 'They manage all the sea routes and know what to do.' 'China's position on the issue of illegal immigration is consistent and clear,' Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. 'The Chinese government firmly opposes all forms of illegal immigration and will continue to strengthen cooperation on international immigration law enforcement and work with relevant countries to address the challenges posed by illegal cross-border activities such as organized smuggling.' The woman said that the route her smugglers arranged for her included flying to London and then onto the city of Nassau in the Bahamas before boarding two separate boats bound for Florida. Her Fujianese smugglers hired local men to arrange shelter and to transport the woman and her group, but the planning and logistics were coordinated by a smuggling operation in China, up to the very last leg from the Bahamas to Miami, she said. The services don't come cheap. The woman said she paid an initial deposit of more than $10,000 with a promise to pay an additional $22,000 when she arrived safely in the U.S. She doesn't have to pay the remaining sum given her current state in detention, she said. It was a price she was more than willing to pay to escape 'fear and persecution,' she said. But passengers aren't always charged the same amount. 'Each person is charged based on their own circumstances,' she said. 'Those who can pay more are asked to pay more. The more you pay, the less dangerous the routes are that you might have to take.' In China, the woman said, life simply became too unbearable. Her decision to leave China was one made out of desperation, she said. 'I'm so afraid to go back,' she said. 'I know that something bad will happen to me.' 'During the Covid-19 pandemic, China has always upheld the concept of putting people's lives first, and scientifically and accurately optimized epidemic prevention measures,' Pengyu said. 'China's epidemic prevention and control policy is scientific, effective, in line with China's national conditions, and can stand the test of history. At the same time, I want to stress that China is a country under the rule of law, and the Chinese government protects the lawful rights of its citizens.' Freedom for an instant Onboard the boat in the waters off the Bahamas, large waves violently shook her and the other passengers. 'I remember thinking we were all going to capsize,' she said. But after many hours at sea, the boat finally stopped on a remote island. It was already close to midnight and the temperatures had plummeted. After a windy, uncomfortable night where she said the migrants were told not to turn on their phones for fear the light would alert authorities, she boarded a second boat at daybreak, headed for U.S. soil, Coral Gables. 'When we arrived, there was a lot of happiness on the faces of the other passengers,' she said. But that happiness didn't last long. 'Just two minutes later, we were all apprehended,' she said. Since she was taken into CBP custody, the woman said she's been treated very well. 'Everyone here has been very kind to me,' she said. 'They're even wishing me happy Chinese New Year.' Customs and Border Protection did not respond to NBC News' request for comment. Her hope in coming to the U.S. was to eventually join relatives living in another state. Whether she gets that chance will be left to the courts. 'America is a land governed by laws and respect for human rights,' she said. 'That's why it's the best country in the world.'
