Linda TIPPKAEMPER

Within the last decades, China has opened up to become an integrated member of the globalized world. While this development has certainly led to an increased mobility of goods manufactured in China, the country has so far been rather cautious when it comes to actively promoting the visa-free cross-border mobility of people. Scholars have therefore characterized the world most populous country as an “autocratic isolate” within the global visa regime. This characterization, however, does not match neither with the reality that China is the world’s fastest growing tourism source market nor with the fact that Chinese businessmen fill international airports. This points to their growing ability to successfully pass foreign border security regimes. My thesis will take these regimes as an object of research and try to explain why and in what manner they differ in their permeability.