Beijing’s message to the world’s tourists: come here and judge China for yourselves | Zichen Wang

By relaxing visa rules, Beijing has two things on its mind – boosting its economy and improving its self-image

Walk through central Beijing today and one thing quickly becomes apparent: foreigners are back. They are taking photos outside the Forbidden City and sitting in cafes around Gulou and Sanlitun. The shift is visible online, too; YouTube is increasingly filled with videos titled “China Shocked Me” or “My First Week in China”. Most of the creators are tourists, not China specialists or journalists, and many of them are encountering the country for the first time.

The resurgence is striking because to many outside observers China’s story has become one of closure and increased security – of intensifying strategic rivalry with the west, expanded anti-espionage enforcement and increasingly constrained foreign reporting, including the withholding and revocation of visas for US journalists. Yet on the ground, another story is unfolding. When it comes to its relationship with the rest of the world, Beijing increasingly appears to be betting on direct exposure: come to China and judge for yourself.

Zichen Wang is deputy secretary-general at the Center for China and Globalization, a thinktank in Beijing. This article was co-written by Hao Wu, an assistant professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University

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