Henley Passport Index (Henley Passport Index) shows that the Singapore passport has received visa -free treatment of 192 destinations, and once again replaced Japanese passports ranked first in the world.EssenceWhat is the ranking of Chinese (mainland) passports?According to this report, only 80 countries and regions are willing to exempt Chinese citizens. This number ranks 63rd, which seems not very low; but in fact, this ranking is not accurate.
The accurate ranking depends on how many competitors are stronger than the ranking participants, and cannot simply follow the numerical order.For example, if the scores of A, B, and C are the same, and the scores of D are lower than A, B, and C, then D should be ranked fourth instead of the second place.The index will row D second.If the ranking of the previous idea is revised, Chinese passports are only 114th in the world.
Earlier years, Chinese official media and scholars have reflected on this issue.In 2012, the People's Daily reproduced the point of view of Professor Xia Liping of the School of Foreign Affairs, that is, the number of visa -free countries generally depends on the level of development, and higher per capita income often brings more visa -free countries.In 2014, the Global Times said that this is a decision made by developed countries based on the judgment of China's development level, reflecting concerns about illegal immigrants in China.Only through further development can China reduce the number of immigrants from foreign countries, gradually alleviate such concerns, and finally get more visa -free countries.To this day, in Zhihu and other Chinese Internet communities, it is still common to think that the excessive signing country for China is not a high level of development in China is still relatively common.
However, in today's perspective, it seems inaccurate to attribute excessive visa countries to the "low development level" in China.
GDP per capita (GDP) is one of the most important indicators to measure the development level of the economy.In 2022, the per capita GDP of mainland China reached 12,813 US dollars, ranking 68th among 196 economies, and only 121st in 2002.In addition, other indicators such as the median per capita wealth of Swiss Credit Group, the human development index of the United Nations Development Planning Department, and the global innovation index of the World Intellectual Property Organization can also measure the level of development.In 2021, China's per capita wealth ranked 43rd in the world, and the human development index ranked 78th (ranked 114th in 2000).In 2022, China's global innovation index ranked 11th (ranked 34th in 2012), and even surpassed members of the Western seven groups such as Japan and France.It can be found that the ranking of the above indicators is not as low as the 100th.If China -free country -free country is really because of "low development level", many countries and regions seem to be still implementing visa policies for China in accordance with China's development status 20 years ago.
Now, let's think about "concerns about illegal Chinese immigrants."Assuming the low level of development will indeed bring more illegal immigrants to developed countries. The fact is that many developed economies do not seem to worry about those "illegal immigrants" of those countries with comparable development as China and even much lower.For example, many indicators in Brazil, Mexico, Samoa and other countries are lower than China.Ukraine's per capita GDP has even fallen to half of Gansu Province, the poorest province in China.However, their citizens can enter a lot of high -income developed countries, such as Anton, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, etc.EssenceThese developed countries are not listed on visa destinations for China.
Even if this concern is meaningful for high -income developed economies, it doesn't make much sense for other regions.Among more than 200 countries and regions around the world, there are less than 50 high -income developed economies.China's development level is higher than most developing economies, and the latter does not have to worry about illegal immigrants from China.However, why are many unbroken economies willing to exempt citizens from citizens in countries with much lower development levels?Turkey, Argentina, Botswana, Zambia and other countries are visa -free countries from Brazil, Mexico, Ukraine and other countries, but they are not exempted from China. Among them, Zambia and even the United Nations are the most developed countries.
From the perspective of actual development, the number of exemptions to China has not reached normal level, and it seems that there are still double standards for China and other countries.Of course, China is definitely impossible to reach the level of high -income and high welfare developed countries such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Singapore.However, since Brazil, Mexico, Ukraine, Samoa and other countries all have at least 130 visa -free countries and regions, China should have more developed China, and the ranking of Chinese passports should be higher than these countries, but this is not the case.This further shows that the level of development is not the reason for excessive signs of China, at least today lacks explanation.
Since it is not caused by the level of development, what may be the reason?Maybe the inherent prejudice of the Chinese on geopolitics and ideology?Or the concerns of Chinese citizens who occupy local resources and bring "cultural invasion"?Or does China have insufficient communication and negotiations with other countries on visa issues?One thing is certain that the official soft power of Beijing still has huge room for improvement, and the overseas image construction is far away.
The author is a doctoral student at the School of Political and International Relations of Lanzhou University
