Argentine Soccer Star Lionel Messi Detained by Chinese Police at Beijing Airport Due to Visa Issue

Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi arrived in Beijing on June 10 ahead of a friendly game against Australia in Beijing’s Workers Stadium on June 15, but was detained by Chinese police at the airport for more than two hours due to a visa issue.

This was Messi’s seventh visit to China, and hordes of fans were waiting for him at the airport—with many wearing replicas of Argentina’s blue-and-white no. 10 jersey made famous by Messi and other greats, such as Diego Maradona.

According to media reports, the World Cup winner was stopped at customs after his arrival at Beijing airport, and detained for not having an entry visa.

Having moved from Argentina to Spanish club Barcelona as a child, Messi is now a dual citizen, and holds both Argentine and Spanish passports. According to the Chinese communist regime’s visa agreements, however, holders of Argentine passports can apply for tourist and business visas that are valid for ten years and multiple visits upon entry to China, while holders of Spanish passports need to obtain visas in advance to enter the country.

Messi brought his Spanish passport to China this time, and reportedly hadn’t applied for a visa. While Spain doesn’t have a visa-free entry agreement with China, Spanish passport-holders can enter Taiwan without a visa.

Messi is reported to have asked Chinese customs staff, “Isn’t Taiwan China?” The question resulted in an awkward silence, as the customs staff in Beijing couldn’t respond, according to media reports.

Messi was detained at the airport for around 2 hours until Chinese officials issued him an expedited visa. The incident has gone viral on both Chinese social media and international social media platforms frequented by Chinese-speaking users.

Most countries in the world follow the entry-visa principle of “reciprocity and mutual benefit”—that is, if the two countries agree, they can exempt each other’s citizens from the most stringent entry visa requirements. According to the Chinese communist regime’s data, as of 2019 there are only 14 countries that had full mutual visa exemptions with China.

In response to Messi’s visa incident, some netizens questioned why entry to China should be so difficult. Some commented that the Chinese regime always says that it has friends all over the world—“but how come they only have visa exemptions with so few countries?” Others asked, “Why can Taiwan (Republic of China) citizens go to so many places without visas, but mainland Chinese residents can’t?”

The biggest obstacle for Chinese people to traveling abroad freely actually comes from the Chinese regime and not the other countries, as pointed out by U.S.-based China affairs observer Heng He.

“It’s the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that is unwilling to sign visa exemptions with more countries. This is because they don’t want Chinese people to go to other countries easily and freely. It’s for them to further control Chinese people,” Heng told NTD news on June 12.

In 2009 and 2010, the South Korean government proposed to China a reciprocal agreement that would allow citizens of the two countries to enter each others’ territories without a visa, but the CCP refused, stating that “the objective conditions are not ripe.”