People from nine more countries, including South Korea, Norway, Finland and Slovakia, will have visa-free entry to China from Friday, as Beijing tries to attract more tourists and improve international ties.
From November 8, nationals from these countries, which also include Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein, will be allowed to enter China for business, tourism, family visits or transit for up to 15 days without a visa, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.
The policy will be in effect until the end of next year and take the total of countries in this category to 25.
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The announcement followed President Xi Jinping’s meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in Beijing on Friday.
According to the ministry, Fico said Slovakia welcomed Chinese investments in its clean energy sector and was “willing to join the Friends of Peace“, a group spearheaded by China and Brazil to find a political settlement to the war in Ukraine.
Fico’s trip came just days after the European Commission, which oversees European Union trade policy, decided to impose tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. Slovakia was one of the five EU countries that opposed the tariffs, counting on Chinese investment to help build an EV battery plant.
As he announced the elevation of ties with Slovakia to a higher level on Friday, Xi said Beijing attached great importance to relations between China and the EU.
“China-EU relations should demonstrate due maturity and stability,” Xi was quoted by state news agency Xinhua as saying.
“[EU institutions] should adopt a positive and pragmatic approach, properly manage differences, and refrain from politicising economic and trade issues.”
Meanwhile, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, is in East Asia to foster closer defence partnerships with Japan and South Korea following reports of North Korean soldiers receiving Russian army uniforms at a base near Ukraine.
The North Korean presence raises the spectre of a wider conflict and South Korea is one country that could potentially be drawn in.
China and South Korea maintain robust trade ties but these have been tested in recent years by Seoul’s closer security and political relations with Washington under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
China has been without an ambassador in South Korea for more than three months, the longest vacancy since the two countries established diplomatic ties.
