• China’s foreign ministry announced visa-free entry for British and Canadian passport holders effective Feb. 17 through Dec. 31, 2026
• The move follows landmark trade visits by Prime Ministers Starmer and Carney as both countries diversify away from US economic dependence
• Trump warned both allies that doing business with China would be “very dangerous” — but neither country changed course

BEIJING, CHINA (TDR) — China confirmed Sunday that British and Canadian nationals will be able to enter the country for up to 30 days without a visa starting Feb. 17, according to an official statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The China visa free travel expansion covers business trips, tourism, family visits, and exchange purposes, and will remain in effect through Dec. 31, 2026.

The timing is deliberate. Feb. 17 marks the start of Lunar New Year — China’s biggest annual holiday. But the geopolitical calendar matters more than the cultural one. The announcement leaves the United States as the only Five Eyes intelligence alliance member whose citizens cannot enter China without a visa.

China Visa Free Travel and the Five Eyes Fracture

The Five Eyes alliance — the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — has been the West’s most formidable intelligence-sharing network since World War II. All five members now enjoy visa-free access to China except one.

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Australia and New Zealand were already on China’s visa-free list. Canada and the UK are the latest additions. The pattern is unmistakable: Beijing is systematically peeling US allies away from Washington’s orbit on trade, offering economic carrots while the US wields tariff sticks.

The backstory makes the strategic calculation clear.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Beijing in late January — the first trip by a British prime minister in eight years. He traveled with a delegation of nearly 60 business executives and cultural leaders. The visit produced a series of agreements: 30-day visa-free travel for UK citizens, a 50% reduction in Chinese tariffs on Scotch whisky, AstraZeneca committing $15 billion in Chinese investment through 2030, and what the UK government valued at £2.2 billion in export deals with an additional £2.3 billion in market access benefits over five years.

“China is a vital player on the global stage, and it’s vital that we build a more sophisticated relationship where we identify opportunities to collaborate, but also allow a meaningful dialogue on areas where we disagree.”

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That was Starmer during his meeting with President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had visited Beijing two weeks earlier — the first Canadian prime ministerial visit since 2017. That trip produced a trade agreement that slashed Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola seed from approximately 85% to 15%, allowed 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into Canada at a 6.1% tariff — down from the 100% tariff imposed under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — and Xi’s commitment to visa-free access for Canadians.

“At its best, the Canada-China relationship has created massive opportunities for both our peoples. By leveraging our strengths and focusing on trade, energy, agri-food, and areas where we can make huge gains, we are forging a new strategic partnership.”

Carney said that at the news conference in Beijing. He also described the relationship with China as “more predictable” than the current US relationship — a remarkable statement from the leader of America’s closest neighbor.

Trump’s Warning and the “Very Dangerous” Response

President Donald Trump didn’t wait long to react. Asked about the UK doing business with China, Trump called the move “very dangerous” and directed sharper criticism at Canada.

“It’s even more dangerous for Canada to get into business with China. Canada is not doing well … You can’t look at China as the answer.”

Trump then reportedly threatened 100% tariffs on Canadian goods if Ottawa moved forward with the China deal. He added, with characteristic flourish, that the Chinese would tell Canadians they’re “not allowed to play ice hockey anymore.”

Neither country reversed course. UK Trade Minister Chris Bryant responded that Britain “has to drive its own course around the world.” Starmer had said before his trip that Britain would not have to choose between the US and China.

The dynamic represents what Gabriel Wildau, managing director at political consultancy Teoneo, called a structural problem: the UK’s “squeezed position between the two superpowers” is not a quirk of the Trump administration but a long-term reality.

China Visa Free Travel: The Bigger Pattern

The UK and Canada are not outliers. They’re joining a stampede.

Since November, Beijing has hosted France’s president, South Korea’s president, Finland’s prime minister, Germany’s finance minister and Ireland’s taoiseach — the first Irish leader to visit in 14 years. Germany’s chancellor is expected next.

China’s visa-free program has expanded rapidly since the country began reopening after COVID-19 lockdowns in late 2023. The numbers tell the story: in 2025, China recorded 30.08 million visa-free entries, a 49.5% increase over 2024. Visa-free arrivals accounted for 73% of all foreign entries. Total foreign national entries reached 82 million.

The visa-free list now covers 48 countries under unilateral access plus 29 countries with reciprocal agreements — 75 countries in total. With the UK and Canada, the number reaches roughly 50 unilateral visa-free nations. Travel platform Trip.com reported that bookings for travel to China doubled in the first three months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, with 75% of visitors from visa-free regions.

The program isn’t purely economic altruism. As Lynette Ong, a political scientist and China specialist at the University of Toronto, explained to Now Toronto:

“It’s part of the goodwill gesture that the Chinese government is sending to Canada. Given the geopolitical tension between the United States and China, I think China wants Canada to be on its side because it’s a balance against the U.S.”

What Critics and Security Experts Say

The security concerns are not trivial.

The South China Morning Post reported that both UK and Canadian visits have raised questions about whether the Five Eyes alliance — which has accused China of espionage — can maintain its coherence when three of its five members are actively deepening economic ties with Beijing.

Nazak Nikakhtar, a former Trump administration official and China policy expert, told Fox News that Western governments underestimate Beijing’s control over ostensibly private firms:

“What business leaders and government leaders fail to fully acknowledge is that they assume Chinese companies are acting autonomously — and that’s just not the case.”

She warned that Chinese investment typically targets commodity sectors first, generating revenue to move up the value chain and undercut competitors.

On the UK side specifically, the Starmer government recently approved plans for a massive new Chinese embassy in central London — overriding fears from British intelligence that the “mega-embassy” could be used as an espionage hub for all of Europe.

Patricia Kim of the Brookings Institution offered a more measured assessment. She told Newsweek that US allies are clear-eyed about Beijing’s track record: “Many U.S. allies have direct experience with Chinese economic retaliation and longstanding concerns about Chinese overcapacity and its impact on their domestic industries and trade balances. They also continue to have deep-seated differences with China over values and governance.”

In other words, these countries aren’t naive — they’re calculating. And the calculation increasingly favors engagement over isolation, regardless of Washington’s preferences.

The Reciprocity Question

One detail missing from most coverage: China’s visa-free program is largely unilateral. That means Chinese citizens don’t automatically get visa-free access to the UK or Canada in return. The arrangement benefits travelers going to China — and benefits China through tourism revenue and soft power — but doesn’t create the same openness in the other direction.

Neither the UK nor Canada announced reciprocal visa-free access for Chinese nationals. Canada’s deal included allowances for 49,000 Chinese EVs at preferential tariffs and a stated goal of increasing exports to China by 50% by 2030. The UK’s deal focused on services sector access and financial cooperation, including establishing London’s second renminbi clearing bank.

This asymmetry is worth noting: China is opening its doors to Western travelers while maintaining its own strict outbound controls and the Great Firewall that blocks international social media platforms for anyone inside the country.

The US Exception

The elephant in the room is why the US remains excluded from China’s visa-free program.

Some context: a White House adviser reportedly floated the idea of expelling Canada from the Five Eyes alliance entirely amid the ongoing trade war. Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, later denied the report but said he wouldn’t comment on stories based on unnamed sources. Even Steve Bannon pushed back, saying that removing Canada would be “counter-productive” and that “Canada punches way above their weight.”

Meanwhile, US citizens still have access to China’s 240-hour visa-free transit policy — allowing stays of up to 10 days when transiting through the country to a third destination. But the 30-day tourism and business access that 50 other nations enjoy? Not available to Americans.

Beijing hasn’t publicly explained the exclusion. But the diplomatic signal couldn’t be louder: the world’s two largest economies are the least willing to make travel easy for each other’s citizens, even as China systematically welcomes nearly everyone else.

Does China’s decision to offer visa-free travel to every Five Eyes nation except the United States represent a successful soft power strategy that exploits cracks in the Western alliance — or are US allies making rational economic calculations that Washington should be matching rather than punishing?

Sources

My article was compiled using information from the following sources: China’s Foreign Ministry official statement on visa-free entry for UK and Canada, CGTN’s reporting on the visa-free announcement, South China Morning Post’s coverage of the Five Eyes angle, PBS coverage of Starmer’s China visit, ITV News reporting on Starmer-Xi talks, CNBC’s reporting on Trump’s warning to UK and Canada, Canada’s official announcement of the China strategic partnership, Al Jazeera’s reporting on Canada-China tariff deals, Newsweek’s analysis of Trump’s response, Fox News coverage of allied outreach to Beijing, Military.com’s analysis of UK-China trade reset, Globe and Mail’s breakdown of the Canada-China deal, VisasNews on China’s visa-free entry statistics, Euronews on China’s expanded visa-free list, and Newsweek’s analysis of Five Eyes fracture risks.

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