A fresh controversy has broken out at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport following reports from multiple travelers who witnessed apparently healthy foreign passengers using wheelchairs to cut ahead in lines, only to rise and walk unassisted shortly afterward.
Since November 20, 2025, several eyewitnesses stated they observed foreign travelers seated in wheelchairs while going through immigration, then standing on their own to retrieve luggage, browse duty‑free stores, and leave the terminal without any aid. (Refer to the photos above.)
On November 25, local media outlet Xiangyang Videoreached out to the airport’s customer service for an explanation. The airport clarified that its own wheelchairs are provided only before the security checkpoint, whereas the wheelchairs shown in the widely circulated images were located past security. Consequently, those chairs were not supplied by the airport but by the airlines. Nevertheless, the airport stopped short of denying that passengers might have misused wheelchair assistance.
The episode has ignited public outrage, with many condemning what they see as a rising pattern of “wheelchair scams”—a practice in which physically able travelers ask for wheelchair service to avoid lengthy airport queues.
