Argentine footballer Lionel Messi was detained by Chinese officials in Beijing after arriving in the People’s Republic of China without a valid visa in his passport. His excuses were two-fold: he grabbed the wrong passport and wrly smirked, “Is Taiwan not China?”
Lionel Messi Stopped By Border Officials In China After Traveling With Wrong Passport
Messi and his entourage flew to China via private jet ahead of of football match at Workers’ Stadium in Beijing on Thursday between Australia and Argentina. However, upon arrival Messi presented his Spanish passport…which was not the passport used to obtain his visa to China. Instead, his Argentine visa was used.
Although 35-year-old Messi is one of the world’s wealthiest and most famous athletes, his acclaim was not enough to bypass the Great (border) Wall of China. Instead, he was detained by officials while they figured out how to handle this kerfuffle.
While being led away by border officials he was overhead asking, “Is Taiwan not China?” It was not clear if this was a wry remark or an innocent one, but it seems Messi mistakenly believed that he could obtain a visa on arrival with his Spanish passport.
Messi unintentionally trolled the CCP when stopped by border guards in Beijing. Travelling on his Spanish passport, he thought Spanish visa-free entry to Taiwan extended to China. Messi reportedly asked ”Is Taiwan not China?” when stopped by guards. LOL pic.twitter.com/0rVGHHONdB
— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) June 13, 2023
It took two hours, but Chinese officials did issue him a new visa, allowing him to leave the airport (only to be mobbed by fans to such a degree that he was essentially a prisoner in his own hotel room).
Lesson learned: travel with your correct passport.
CONCLUSION
I’m not so sure Messi meant to troll the CCP through his quip about China and Taiwan being the same place. Instead, I’m going to heap praise on China for the way it handled this incident. China deserves immense disdain for the way it has eroded free speech and other civil liberties in Hong Kong as well as it menacing tone toward the Republic of China, but in terms of handling this particular incident, I give kudos to border officials for so expeditiously arranging a solution for Messi.
(H/T: View From The Wing)
I blame his handlers. Do you think Lionel does all his travel paperwork personally?
Argentina football handles all visa’s for all players & staff. It’s on them & they definitely know better.
Kudos to them for how they handled this, though I imagine it might not have gone so well for someone who wasn’t famous.
Not exactly the same scenario, but I remember a few colleagues and I had to travel to oversee the Shanghai office of the institution I worked for back about 7 years ago and had all of our documents and visas ready so we could get to work immediately. However, the day we arrived at PVG was the day they decided to implement some new waiver for business travelers to China from certain countries including the US which the Chinese government passed out of nowhere and wasn’t announced in the news or on the US Chinese Embassy bulletin before we left and China’s visa regulations/requirements can change overnight without notice. Luckily, I contacted a close bud who I went to Princeton with and his dad was in Li Keqiang’s inner circle at the time and his dad was able to sort things out for me and my colleagues. It wasn’t fun being detained in PVG for 16 hours and we would’ve been kicked back to the US if it weren’t for my bud’s dad’s connections.
Lmfao you heard it from Messi, China is West Taiwan.
I’m joking, but glad that things were sorted out quickly compared to others who’ve faced similar issues trying to enter China.
Lesson learned: China is run by a totalitarian regime.
it would happen in any other country… just to try to come to the US with improper travel documents
Because someone is detained at immigration due to lack of visa? What do you think would happen if a Chinese national came to the USA and didn’t have a visa?
is Taiwan not China ? seriously, the guy could the most famous and richest football player on earth, he is definitely not smart
Wumao detected
I’m wondering how in the world his government have not issued him a diplomat passport???