Toronto business leaders and travel groups are applauding changes to China’s visa rules, which will allow Canadian passport holders to travel to the country visa-free starting Tuesday.

The change was announced by the country’s foreign ministry over the weekend and will be in effect until Dec. 31, according to a statement from a spokesperson for the foreign ministry on its website. The idea of visa-free travel was first mentioned in January, after Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Beijing and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Bijan Ahmadi, the executive director for the Canada China Business Council, said the change is a “constructive and practical step forward.” 

“For businesses, speed and predictability matter. The ability to travel on shorter notice supports deal-making, due diligence, participation at trade shows, executive visits, and relationship-building,” he wrote in an email. 

The changes present a big opportunity for Canadians, said Gordon So, a Toronto entrepreneur and co-founder of Landed for Success, a business networking company for immigrants. So said he’s heard from friends and clients who could stand to benefit — or are already benefiting — from it. 

“A friend of mine here in Toronto is in Sri Lanka, and literally a [business] opportunity came up for him to be in China, so he is going to be going there for a business trip and won’t need a visa,” he said. 

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So — who is from Hong Kong and frequently travels there for business — said the changes will let him bring clients to business networking forums like the Asian Financial Forum, where they can pitch to investors from all over China and form partnerships. 

“In the past, if you meet someone at the Asian Financial Forum, and maybe it’s a banker from somewhere in Beijing that you want to continue to do business with, well, if you don’t have a visa you can’t go,” said So. 

“Now, if you do meet someone and if three days after the event you’re thinking ‘Oh, I would love to go and meet them.’ With your Canadian passport you can now freely just travel to China.”

Travel to China will ‘explode’

Bijan said many businesses he’s heard from see visa-free travel as a “welcome move” that goes beyond business travel because it can also reinforce tourism to both countries, which could in turn support local economies.  

Jessica Vandermey is the regional vice-president of sales for Asia-Pacific with Kensington Tours, a Toronto travel company that’s been operating in China for over 15 years. She said the company has already seen a 100 per cent growth in China trips over the past year.

Visa-free travel will likely make travel to China “explode,” she said. “It’s removing really the biggest barrier to visiting China.”

Vandermey said she’s already seeing “last-minute” travel requests coming through because clients no longer have to worry about how long a visa application process will take or how much it will cost.

‘Cautious optimism’

But Canadians should also exercise caution, said Aurel Braun, a professor of international relations and political science at the University of Toronto.

Braun pointed to concerns around the transparency of the Chinese government, citing its aggression towards Taiwan and previous detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, widely considered to be a retaliatory action by China in response to Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

“We should not fall into the trap that all of a sudden this regime now in China has dramatically changed and there are unlimited opportunities, and now we’re going to have the same kind of relationship that we can have with Germany or with Britain,” said Braun. 

“At best, I would advise cautious optimism.”