China's Passport Power: A Comparative Analysis of Visa-Free Access in

Jason Hung^*

• University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

The concept of passport power has become an increasingly relevant measure of a country's soft power and global standing. Existing scholarship usually ranks countries' passport power by the number of visa-free travel destinations its passport holders can enjoy. Despite being informative, such an understanding is overly generic, which may not necessarily fully assess the passport power itself. The research question is studying how many travel destinations accepting and denying visa-free access to China belong to Western powers and advanced economies. Such an assessment enriches existing understanding of China's passport power. For methodology, this research examines the distribution of 77 destinations offering visa-free access to Singaporean, Japanese, South Korean, and Chinese passport holders. It further explores the distribution of 102 destinations that permit visa-free entry to Singaporean, Japanese, and South Korean citizens but not to Chinese nationals. The comparative analysis approach further allows our evaluation of the existing passport power gap between China and its neighbouring counterparts. The findings indicate that most major global powers (especially major Western powers) and advanced economies (such as high-income and upper-middle-income countries or territories), are inclined to establish visa-free agreements with Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. However, China's passport power lags behind its regional counterparts. Consequently, compared to its neighbouring countries with strong passport power, such as Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, China's passport power still has significant room for improvement. This research concludes that the lack of democratic values, the concerning human rights issues, the western scepticism of China's threats and regional assertiveness, and the rising United States-China tensions across different fields (geopolitics, technology, etc.) all contribute to the relatively weak passport power of China, compared to that of its regional counterparts.