China’s Latest Problem: People Don’t Want to Go There
wsj.com
wsj.com
Cost and language barriers are the biggest ones I would assume for the vast majority of potential visitors.
From a tech-minded perspective, the list gets larger.
You're being tracked 24/7 by cameras, where you go, what you do, potentially what you spend your money on if you have to use their financial system.
If you speak the language and you happen to say something that's disagreeable to their government or their police, how do you know you won't end up in a cell for your crime?
Seeing stories of the government welding people into their apartment complexes to avoid the spread of viruses, hauling people into boxed vans to be taken away, etc. etc.
Not to mention the news media covering stories about "secret" police stations set up in foreign countries where Chinese operatives keep eyes on their ex-pats, potentially attempting to kidnap them and force them to return to China for some untold crime.
If you want to see dystopian, authoritarian governments exerting control over their citizens, it would be a great place to go, but I'm fine experiencing the beginning of the surveillance state in my home country.
It's sad though because they have beautiful parks and attractions for people to visit and learn about their rich cultural history spanning thousands of years. Shame about the government though.
And totally lack of transparency regarding the process or rules.
Also century of humiliation did never end as ccp is just colonial Administrator of country preventing 1.4 billion from realizing there full potential. China's success was made by partially free citizens despite ccp.
I have friends paying touts to literally stand in line on their behalf at consulates in SF and NYC because the process is still extremely bureaucratic and paper based.
The CCP has always been salty about how economic interaction also causes cultural interaction, exposing their citizens to ideas that the Party dislikes. The fact that casual tourism is dropping plays right into their hands.
Perhaps China feels self-sufficient enough now that they are willing to go the isolationism route?
China is the world’s biggest importer of meat, dairy, soybeans and corn. China is roughly the same size as the US in terms of land mass. Only 10% of Chinese soil is arable, for a population of 1.4B people. For comparison, around 17% of US land is arable, for a population of 332m.
Isolationism also doesn't make sense in the context of the Belt and Road initiative, which exists to solve the exact problem of food shortages (and the need to dump steel, etc created by hyper-financialization) .
They start to ask "What the hell is our government doing, while we're going through this shit?"
An economically happy populace is one that's easy to rule over. There is no reason why the CCP should want its people to be upset.
Would love to go to Chengdu either way.
On the cleanliness issue, all we can really say is that we are trying harder! The railway system used to be very dirty, it is much much cleaner now.
Food hygiene can be a problem for those not used to it, but standard common sense rules like eating in crowded places should keep you safe.
Oh, and we don't have a habit of demanding you to register with the police when checking in to a hotel unlike some other countries.
If India can stay on this track, the next few centuries will be theirs for the taking. Demographics are in their favor, democracy is shittier short term but very stable long term, China's growth is slowing, and India engineering is world class.
I think we'll see China like Brazil - a country that had a shot, and spent it, and is now permanently middle income; a regional power.
With China the process is a bit wonky because a lot of Chinese diaspora members won't renounce Chinese citizenship when they acquire a 2nd citizenship (even though this is technically illegal in China).
Diaspora members want to continue to have the ability to buy property and investments within China as well as have a streamlined way to return to meet extended family so they keep the Chinese passport, but this means you have to keep renewing it every couple years.
When Zero COVID kicked in from late 2019 to January 2023, the renewal process and visa process basically shut down, and because of discontent in late 2022, the entire reopening process was super haphazard and rushed to meet the Jan 23 commitment, you now had millions of (on-paper) Chinese nationals trying renew their Passports, multiple foreign nationals of Chinese origin renouncing Chinese nationality because of headaches, and plenty of foreign national Chinese diaspora memberd applying for visas to visit family or do business in China.
The MFA was unable to scale up and so the backlog is crazy, especially because it's done by the Chinese govt itself.
In India's case, the entire visa, passport, and OCI renewal, creation, and renounciation process is outsourced to 2 Indian companies called VFS Global and BLS International which does the same process for a bunch of other countries like the UK, Spain, Cyprus, Afghanistan, and Portugal.
Honestly, I'm surprised the Chinese govt hasn't gotten around to streamlining the whole process or at least making some form of a Diaspora PR like India did with the OCI. That would solve a lot of the travel related headaches.
I you can use a registered agent, but it seems kind of wonky compared with having a single corporation doing everything from an efficiency standpoint.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Winnie-the-Poo...
Anti-American and the anti-Western feeling exists all over. Just have to the scratch the surface to see it. The west is not worth emulating anymore unless you want to be the kardashians or something. China is expressing it more openly, cuz they arent as dependent on the west as much as the result of the world is.
Even small business or personal disputes can get you flagged, you can't leave the country. Even if you aren't in jail or charged with any crime.
You may not even know where and how to appeal.
It is still completely rule by edict and personal relationship/connections.
Biggest issue is ticket price to PRC exploded especially Q1 (range of this article) right after end of zero covid and PRC consulate have massive backlog of visa and paperwork to process. Most of the diasphora I know wants to return but won't because too expensive or can't because paperwork. There's also UKR war + US/PRC disputes over resuming flights drama with respect to overflights over RU territory = current US to PRC routes was like 5% precovid a few months ago.
WSJ article trying to imply marginal foreign tourism numbers is a problem - then admits it impacts PRC little relative to tourism dependent countries). Meanwhile PRC domestic tourism surged due to people being stuck in country (covid controls + now expensive tickets). Relatively RoW has much more problem with lack of PRC outbound tourist then PRC lack of inbound tourism what is also backstopped by raising domestic tourism.
I spent a fair bit of time in Shanghai 2017-2019 for work, have a 10-year unlimited entry visa, and won't be going back for that and a few other reasons.
Same with US/west increasingly prosecuting PRC espionage (sometimes bordering on witchhunt - see China Initiative). Counter intelligence activity is up on both sides due to geopolitical tensions. Western foreign policy push narrative to western media playing up minimal detainment/exit ban threat as part of general people to people decoupling efforts. Record number of established academic / talent from west are flooding back to PRC, student permits to Canada/US about halfed last year. On PRC side, more capital flight. It's happening on both sides.
What's a bigger problem, capital flight and PRC not getting some tourists or western FDI (also miniscule as % of PRC investments), or US losing talent to PRC and unable to brain drain PRC talent. That's up to propaganda from each side to decide. Less people to people interaction isn't the problem to PRC increasing securitization, it's the acceptable cost to reducing espionage which is also happening in the west. Article framing completely/intentionally misses that, while also focusing on group that matters least, western tourists, and not talking about basic macro factors like ticket prices in Q1, and VISA backlog.
I agree. Start by restoring access to the internet.