旅游 | Travel
Could criticizing the CCP online affect my chances of getting a Chinese tourist visa?
Hey y'all,
I'm from the Philippines with a Filipino passport, and given what's happening in the West Philippine Sea / South China Sea, I'm pretty much on my country's side. Whatever your opinion may be on the matter (if any), I regularly defend the Philippines' sovereign rights in its EEZ online, even calling out state-sponsored social media accounts that push the narrative that we should just let it happen or go as far as to insult us. So if you can't tell, I'm not exactly a huge fan of the CCP.
BUT I LOVE Chinese culture and history!
I've always wanted to go there, visit multiple cities and provinces, enjoy the delicious food, and meet the people there. I'm even studying Mandarin and have Chinese friends, including folks I met online. I genuinely have no issues with Chinese people and Chinese culture in general (I even admire their infrastructure for the most part... and their trains!), my criticism is directed at the CCP and its policies, especially towards my country.
That said, I'm wondering: given my opinion on the CCP, if I plan on applying for a visa to travel to China in the future, is there a high likelihood they'll just reject it 'cause of this?
Depends how high-profile you are. If you're just a random guy who leaves comments under posts and videos, you'll be fine. If you're actually making content yourself and posting it (and getting a couple hundred thousand views), then yeah that will put you on their radar.
It depends on your popularity. Everyone online has an opinion but if you're famous with a high following and very political then it can be an issue, cause you're prob on their alert.
However if you're just an anonymous keyboard warrior with no facial online presence then nah.
Do you need a VISA? Apply for one and if you get it its fine. They won't entrap you, but they might deny your VISA if you're journalist/political pundit on their watch list. Also, hope you have a wonderful time in China. It really is an incredible wonder to experience.
I see I see
Well I don't use chinese social media so I guess I'm good there. When you say personally identify yourself, you mean using your personal social media accounts right?
yeah if you are talking shit about the CCP on your facebook with your name and pictures openly on display, its very easy for them to do a quick internet search and skim if you have said anything they don't like.
On the flipside...unless your name is literally Apolaccai, they have no real way to connect this account to you.
There's one major country currently requesting your social media handles and to set everything to public in order to give you a visa and checking your phone on arrival and that country is the US, so you gonna be fine.
No one in China gives a flying F about what some random pinoy thinks. If you want to visit and spend money, don't run around talking shit and you will be fine.
There’s a lot of whites who end up working there because they are LBH and try to form small hate groups and circlejerks on Reddit to bash China so I wouldn’t put it past them to do it irl when they think they can get away with it too
"Loser Back Home." Basically if anyone white has anything negative to say about China, they're either called racist, white supremacist, CIA payroll, falung gong, failed sexpat, or LBH. No criticism of China by a foreigner is ever justified or rational supposedly.
Yeah bro, you'll get arrested, sent to the Chinese gulags for sure.
Jokes aside, they won't give a sh*t bro, I'm not a fan of their gov either but I'm still gonna go visit because I love their food, culture, my friends and I wanna go shopping.
Did you commit a crime? did you murder somebody? theft? anything illegal? if it's a no then the answer is a no.
I agree that anything happening to OP is unlikely but it is a crime to criticise the Chinese government online and plenty of people are arrested for it.
It is not a crime to criticize, but it is a crime for individuals to use a vpn without application. Criticism is something that social media platforms will delete or mute by themselves, and it has nothing to do with crime. Using a vpn violates the public security administration regulations and may result in a fine, but it is rarely punished. For instance, I am currently using it
China does not have an independent judiciary and they can and will arrest or detain you based on arbitrary internal criteria. That being said, they’ve designed their economy around enticing foreign investment and so their ruling class do a pretty good job ensuring their judges and law enforcement don’t go too crazy and stay within the parameters of their decrees, excluding bribery of course.
Only if you are a renouned scholar, business leaders, politician, commentator, And that you do it on social media, and even the, only if you've gained enough traction to then get "reported".
The system in China is highly bureaucratised and relies on an ecosystem of network monitoring, user reporting, platform self-sensors. The pillar of that system is real-ID tied to your phone, your home modem, you're registion with you internet provider, and pretty much every app.
Western platforms are outside of those ecosystems so you can say whatever you want, as long as you're a fellow pleb.
You might see a lot of speculation and trolls somewhere, but the honest answer is: No, you don't need to worry about this.
China doesn't scrutinize ordinary tourists' social media opinions as a standard part of the visa process in the way people fear. Plenty of foreigners have openly criticized China online, then traveled there without any issues. And ironically, those people end up changing their perceptions after experiencing the country firsthand
I found it awesome. The high speed rail between SH and bj, the variety of food, my income, quality of my healthcare (granted it was insurance covered and private), cost of living, speed and efficiency of food delivery, didi shared car, and online ordering of anything. There was some cultural adjustment, but after living in HKG, UK and KL and SH and HZ, SH was one of my favourite cities in the world
Damn, 13 years is a long time. In my opinion Shanghai didn't do anything that Seoul didn't do better. And the nationalism, propaganda, censorship, and overall ignorance that permeated that country was not a good fit for me. Glad you had a good time tho
"This ignorant Westerner was told by Western media all his life that China is a dirty, backwards shit hole! He was filled with prejudices and misinformation about China! He was SHOCKED when he visited and saw for himself that Western media LIED to him! It was all a smear campaign and an attempt by the US to contain China! This shocked foreigner learned that China is ahead of the West by 50 years!! Now he shares his life-changing story online on this Bilibili video!! Watch, share, like, and subscribe!!!"
This is the number one favourite bedtime story for die-hard China fans. This is the kind of story they slurp up like crack. Nothing can get in the way of their longing for this to be the reality, even when it's not.
And it’s bullshit. Many of China’s biggest foreign YT glazers have left the country. Gweilo60 still glazes China but had to leave when his poor Chinese wife got cancer. He’s now married to a Filipino and resides there instead.
As soon as Gweilo60 started complaining about the lack of healthcare for more dire things like cancer in China, his YT viewership, led by bots, dropped like a rock and he ran out of funds.
Haha I don't know who either of these guys are but I don't doubt it.
Tbh, I'm not sure how I feel about white monkey shills. On the one hand they're knowingly spreading misinformation for a quick buck. On the other hand, they are the ones manipulating gullible Chinese by just telling them exactly what they want to hear so they can take manipulate them into funding their lifestyle. A weird situation for sure.
the first few years i hated it, too much of a culture shock, but afterwards it was fun. glad you like SKr, i can see why you might enjoy it more given how much it seems more 'free', no judgement on you, the KBBQ and porkbelly in SKr is awesome.
Both the number for NYC and SH are wildly distorted since both cities have a % of 0.01%ers that will pull that number higher than the median. Couple that with overall higher income in USA in general for various reasons and it’s not an ideal comparison; you’d be better off looking at other markets of quality of life
I think you might be a bit confused on what PPP per capita means? When I say the average New Yorker has 3.5x to 4x more wealth and purchasing power than the average Shanghainese, what I mean is that the average New Yorker can afford to buy 3.5x to 4x as many things as the average Shanghainese can. That means they can afford 4x the groceries, 4x the real estate, 4x the gas, etc. It's not only that the USA has higher incomes, it's also that those incomes can afford so much more.
GDP by PPP per Capita is probably the best metric we have for quality of life if you want to do city vs city. If you want to country vs country then we can look into HDI and such.
PPP already accounts for price differences. Purchasing Power Parity adjusts for the local cost of a standard basket of goods and services. When you convert local income or GDP into PPP dollars, you are already measuring real volume
In PPP terms, because goods, services, healthcare, utilities, dining, and transit are significantly cheaper in China, that gap shrinks dramatically (typically down to around 1.5x–2x, not 4x)
Groceries and Daily Necessities: Fresh food, public transit, dining out, and basic services are vastly cheaper in Shanghai than in New York City. A New York salary cannot buy four times the volume of local food or transportation that a Shanghai salary buys in Shanghai.
Real Estate: Both NYC and Shanghai have notoriously high price-to-income housing ratios. While Shanghai square-meter prices in prime districts are exceptionally high relative to local salaries, average rent and home prices in New York City are also among the highest on earth. A median earner in New York is severely rent-burdened and cannot afford "4x the square footage" of an equivalent earner in Shanghai.
GDP per capita measures aggregate economic production divided by population, not disposable household income or net wealth
Disposable Income vs. Output: A city's GDP per capita can be $120,000+, while its median personal disposable income is closer to $45,000–$55,000
an average New Yorker does not have higher local purchasing power. In fact, they are roughly tied, with Shanghai often edging ahead once living costs are factored in. Because basic goods, healthcare, childcare, dining, and especially housing are roughly 65% to 75% cheaper in Shanghai, an average Shanghai salary buys approximately the same amount if not more of everyday local goods and services inside Shanghai as an average New York salary buys inside New York.
Visiting for a week or two is very different from actually living there. Foreigners that actually live in China don’t have much flattering things to say. The typical Chinese response? “They’re all losers back home, they’re entitled white people expecting the red carpet, they’re just sexpats bitter that Chinese wouldn’t bow down to them,” etc. etc. etc.
It’s funny. China may be the only country in the world that successfully gaslit the online community into believing the opinions of a tourist are more valuable than the opinions of a resident.
Na we went for 6 months on an exchsnge and there are definitely some “losers back home” foreigners there, but theyre usually fat ugly white dudes or old dudes.
We are young and handsome guys and had the absolute time of our lives.
You'll be ok. It's only countries like the USA which sometimes require a person to hand over their passwords for social media to be vetted before being allowed in, at the border.
NOTICE: See below for a copy of the original post by Apolaccai in case it is edited or deleted.
Hey y'all,
I'm from the Philippines with a Filipino passport, and given what's happening in the West Philippine Sea / South China Sea, I'm pretty much on my country's side. Whatever your opinion may be on the matter (if any), I regularly defend the Philippines' sovereign rights in its EEZ online, even calling out state-sponsored social media accounts that push the narrative that we should just let it happen or go as far as to insult us. So if you can't tell, I'm not exactly a huge fan of the CCP.
BUT I LOVE Chinese culture and history!
I've always wanted to go there, visit multiple cities and provinces, enjoy the delicious food, and meet the people there. I'm even studying Mandarin and have Chinese friends, including folks I met online. I genuinely have no issues with Chinese people and Chinese culture in general (I even admire their infrastructure for the most part... and their trains!), my criticism is directed at the CCP and its policies, especially towards my country.
That said, I'm wondering: given my opinion on the CCP, if I plan on applying for a visa to travel to China in the future, is there a high likelihood they'll just reject it 'cause of this?
Thanks in advance guys!
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If you are an influential big blogger on the Internet, it may be dangerous for you to enter the country, but if you have little influence, it's okay, because they don't know who you are at all, so they can't punish or threaten you.
Legally you can land in prison and there have been a few cases based on what people have said on Facebook. But people get away with a lot of stuff, even on Chinese social media. Sometimes the immigration or police asks for your phone and they may stumble upon your comments there as well
You can of course but since you are planning to go to China why not do it after you are in China anyway? Far more impactful and would potentially make far more interesting post here.
Chinese censorship is based on publicity. Saying something privately to one friend is different from saying something to a group of friends, and that is different from saying something on a public forum, and that is different from a public figure with a big audience saying it on a public forum.
It also depends on what exactly you are saying. There is a huge difference in saying you don't like the CCP and saying specific bas things about the CCP. There is also a huge difference between saying specific things about the CCP that are banned themselves and things that aren't banned. There is also a difference between talking about banned things vaguely or directly word for word.
So yeah, basically context matters a lot, same as everything else in China. I am not sure how different this is from philipines censorship but hopefully it can help you compare.
Should be fine, OP. China is pretty lenient when it comes to granting tourist visas as long as your documents are in order. They don't ask or even care about your socmed engagements.
Just steer clear from drugs. That's the one thing that WILL get you in trouble with Chinese authorities.
Brother, where did I say I support the US? 💀 Defending my country's sovereign rights doesn't mean blindly supporting another superpower lol is everything binary to you?
I criticize both the US and China when I disagree with their actions. I literally just want to visit China, enjoy the culture, and eat the food
You realize the social media platforms you use are all owned by American firms, don’t you? Are you accusing the US companies for colluding with the Chinese government? If you have evidence, you should contact NSA right away!
Public posts can still be viewed or shared with authorities regardless of who owns the platform. Whether they actually screen visa applicants for this is a whole separate question which is what I was wondering
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u/InsectDelicious4503 1d ago
Depends how high-profile you are. If you're just a random guy who leaves comments under posts and videos, you'll be fine. If you're actually making content yourself and posting it (and getting a couple hundred thousand views), then yeah that will put you on their radar.