LETTER | Strengthening Sino-Malaysia’s generational ties

LETTER | The enduring friendship between China and Malaysia spans generations, with close ties in personnel, trade and economic exchanges.

In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of bilateral people-to-people exchanges between China and Malaysia reached 3,795,800 and China became Malaysia's largest source of tourists outside Asean countries for seven consecutive years.

The Chinese Embassy in Malaysia attaches great importance to and actively promotes exchanges and cooperation between China and Malaysia in various fields, and has been making continuous efforts to promote the facilitation of bilateral people-to-people exchanges, so that the friendly relations between the two countries will further benefit the people of the two countries.

In 2023, the embassy processed nearly 260,000 visas, with the highest number of visas exceeding 4,000 applications processed on a single day.

This year, the embassy overcame the difficulties, aligned its efforts with the needs and urgencies of applicants, and actively adopted a series of optimisation measures and services to continuously facilitate visa application and border entry for Malaysian citizens to China.

On Jan 8, the embassy resumed the issuance of business, family-visit visas and issued business visas of up to 3-year validity and family-visit visas of up to 5-year validity to eligible Malaysian citizens.

On March 15, the embassy resumed the issuance of tourist visas, and issued tourist visas of up to 1-year validity to eligible Malaysian citizens; from May 1, Malaysians are allowed to enter China with virtual Apec Business Travel Cards.

From Aug 10 to Dec 31, 2024, temporary exemption from fingerprinting is provided for eligible applicants for commercial, tourism and family-visit purposes; from Aug 30, travellers from Malaysia to China are no longer required to take a pre-entry nucleic acid or antigen test for Covid-19; and from Sept 20, optimised visa application form is introduced.

During the peak period of visa application, the embassy, together with the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre in Kuala Lumpur, has made efforts to improve the quality of visa application service, scientifically deploy resources, simplify the visa application process, improve the window service and green channels have been provided to more than 10,000 individuals for important and urgent business, humanitarian affairs and other convenience services.

Towards the end of the year, under the wise decision of the leaders of China and Malaysia, and with the joint efforts of the embassy and all parties, China and Malaysia have launched the good news of facilitating the exchanges between the two countries.

On Nov 24, the Chinese government announced the implementation of a visa-free policy for six countries, including Malaysia and France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, etc., i.e., from Dec 1, 2023, to 30 Nov 30, 2024.

Malaysian holders of ordinary passports who go to China to do business, vacation, visit relatives and friends, and transit for not more than 15 days, can enter China without a visa.

In addition, China also announced the cancellation of online appointments for foreign nationals applying for entry into China, and from Dec 11 to Dec 31, 2024, with visa fees for entry into China reduced.

Measures viewed positively

Meanwhile, the Malaysian government has also announced the implementation of a 30-day visa-free entry facilitation measure for Chinese citizens from 1 Dec 1, 2023, to Dec 31, 2024.

These bilateral policies introduced by China and Malaysia to facilitate exchanges between the two peoples have been warmly welcomed and positively responded to by the people of the two countries.

On the first day of the implementation of the visa-free policy, 1,113 Malaysian citizens entered China visa-free, which is the largest number of entries among the six countries implementing the visa-free policy.

The number of Chinese citizens travelling to Malaysia for tourism and business has also increased significantly. The implementation of mutual visa-free policy marks a historic milestone in China-Malaysia friendly relations and will promote practical cooperation in various fields and bring benefits to both countries and their peoples.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia, and the two countries will have more frequent exchanges and cooperation in the fields of tourism, commerce, culture and education.

The embassy will continue to put people’s needs first and practice diplomacy for people, focus on people’s needs, take more effective measures, and do our best to provide professional and high-quality services to Malaysian citizens.

This is to promote friendly exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, contributing to the enduring friendship between China and Malaysia.

The statement was issued by the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.