Beijing, China — Despite China‘s visa-free policy intended to boost tourism and ease travel for Europeans, ethnic Tibetans holding EU passports face significant hurdles, including interrogations and deportations upon arrival, according to a recent Radio Free Asia (RFA) report.
In an effort to increase tourism and foreign investment, China granted visa-free entry to travelers from several European nations, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands, for up to 15 days. This policy, which has been extended to countries like Belgium and Switzerland, is part of China‘s strategy to encourage reciprocal ease of travel arrangements with other countries.
However, the policy seems to exclude European citizens of Tibetan ethnicity effectively. Belgian citizen Thubten Gyatso experienced this first and when he and his young son were detained for nearly 18 hours at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport earlier this month.
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Gyatso’s ordeal included intense questioning and a thorough search of his possessions, where officials discovered images of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan flag. Such symbols are banned in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and led to his subsequent deportation.
“My reverence for His Holiness transcends boundaries, and if the Chinese authorities prohibit my entry into Tibet due to these images, I accept it without regret,” Gyatso stated, as reported by RFA.
Other Tibetans from Europe have faced similar scrutiny. A French citizen was rerouted from Tibet to Chengdu, where his family was told to meet him instead. Meanwhile, a German passport holder underwent a six-hour interrogation at the same Shanghai airport but was allowed to continue his journey after no prohibited items were found in his belongings.
This selective enforcement hints at ongoing tensions between China’s official policies and their implementation, especially concerning ethnic Tibetans and their cultural symbols. As RFA highlighted, the visa-free entry benefits do not uniformly apply to all, particularly those with ties to Tibetan identity.
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