Obama Announces China Visa Expansion

iStock/Thinkstock(BEIJING) — Delivering a speech in Beijing for the first time since 2009, President Obama announced that one-year visas for Chinese citizens visiting the U.S. will be expanded to five years for students and exchanges, and 10 years for business and tourist visas.

“Of course that’ll be good for the businessmen who’ll be going back and forth all the time, but keep in mind that last year over 1.8 million Chinese visitors to the United States contributed $21 billion to our economy and supported more than 100,000 American jobs,” Obama said, suggesting the agreement could “more than quadruple” those numbers and calling it an “important breakthrough” for both economies.

Addressing a summit of CEOs at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in Beijing, the president struck a positive tone with China while gently chiding it over human rights, inclusive governing, intellectual property, cyber-theft, restrictions to Internet access and protections for workers, offering those up as keys to stability and economic growth. He stayed away from Chinese territorial expansionism, which has caused tensions of late.

“Obviously every country is different, no country’s following the same model, but there are things that bind us together, and despite our differences, we know that there are certain standards that will benefit all people,” Obama said.

Touting the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, the prospects of which improved with the GOP Senate takeover, Obama called it “the model for trade in the 21st century.”

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