China turns on charm, but allure fades
China’s government is rolling out a charm offensive to lure back foreigners, part of an effort to shed years of pandemic-induced isolation that is sapping the world’s second-largest economy.
It’s a tougher sell than it used to be.
In recent months, China has made it simpler and cheaper for business travelers and tourists to get visas, and scrapped visa requirements for some entirely. It has extended tax incentives to make life for foreign residents more appealing. Chinese Premier Li Qiang pledged further moves to rebuild the “Investin-China” brand at the country’s annual legislative meetings earlier this month.
The campaign marks an effort to restore the global ties that helped power China’s decades of record-breaking growth, which Beijing severed during the pandemic as Chinese leader
Xi Jinping elevated security above all else.
Now China is trying to regain its allure for foreigners in a different era, with a slowing economy and tightening social controls. A rising chorus in Washington portrays engagement with China as suspect. And there is lingering distrust in the country’s government stemming from the zero-Covid policies and a nationwide anti-espionage campaign.
One U.S. business executive said he was unsettled in mid2023 when a group of nine police officers showed up at his door in Beijing one evening, demanding to examine his passport and confirm his employer, as one of the officers recorded the interaction with a smartphone. The officers didn’t give a reason for the visit, he said.
“It’ll take a long time to restore the broken trust over the last couple of years,” the executive said.
China handed out 711,000 residence permits to foreigners last year, down 15% from prepandemic 2019, according to the National Immigration Administration. Short-term visitor numbers, which include business travelers, dropped even more, falling two-thirds over the same period.
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