China watchers may steer clear once travel curbs are lifted, survey finds

Name: China 2020 census records slowest population growth in decades
Uploaded: 2021-06-28T13:30:17.000Z
Duration: 10 min 42 s
Description: China 2020 census records slowest population growth in decades

Just 44 per cent of respondents – all with professional ties to the country – say they will visit when it’s possible, according to ChinaFile

Fear of being detained and restrictions on movement, research or reporting among concerns of those who probably or definitely won’t go

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Some respondents said they would return to China because the need to conduct research on the ground outweighed the risks. Photo: AFP

Holly Chik

Published: 9:30pm, 28 Jun 2021Updated: 1:34pm, 29 Jun 2021

Only 44 per cent of China watchers said they would travel to the country once pandemic restrictions are lifted, according to a survey by US-based online magazine ChinaFile.

The magazine, published by the Asia Society’s Centre on US-China Relations, reported that 40 per cent of its 120 contributors – all of whom have professional ties to China – said they “probably” or “definitely” would not visit the country after travel curbs are relaxed. The rest said they were “unsure”.

Foreigners’ main reasons for not going included previous visa rejections, fear that they or the Chinese people they work with would be detained, and restrictions on movement, research or reporting, the report said.

Meanwhile, Chinese nationals were concerned about their safety in China and that they would be barred from re-entering the United States due to geopolitical tensions.

“While [the responses] do not constitute a scientific survey, they nevertheless suggest a significant shift in attitudes among a group of prominent figures in the China field,” the report last week said. “Just a year or two ago, most of the people in this pool of respondents would almost certainly have planned to travel to China as part of their professional routines.”

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China 2020 census records slowest population growth in decades

According to the latest population census, more than 845,000 foreigners were living on the Chinese mainland in 2020, compared to 250,000 a decade ago.