US passport holders eligible for VOA?

Honestly I am not aware of such a movement by Chinese authorities, but I just hope that your sources are not anecdotal. The fact that I know is current refusal to issue VOA to South Korean and Filipino citizens. Also, since the VOA has been reintroduced just a month ago, it is possible that certain employees are not yet in ideal routine. To conclude, personally I do not know about any official or even a feedback here on this forum that would go in favor of your sources.

Thanks so much for your reply. While I certainly wish I'm wrong, if you google "美国、法国人除外" (with quotation marks) or 美国公民不可在中国的口岸申请签证，否则将被拒绝入境 (text from the Chinese consulate in LA webpage) you will see this weird "rule" I referred to. I've been trying to find the original regulation text but haven't succeeded.

Based on your guidance, I can only see the outdated information from 2016 and 2018 year. I know that during 2019 and just before the beginning of Covid outbreak, both French and US citizens were allowed and they have successfully used visas on arrival.

Dear Borut, thanks again for your patient replies. I'm very happy to hear that Americans have been successfully getting visas on arrival. I just wanted to point out that in the article of this website with the title "Hainan 30-Day Visa-Free Access" (it seems I cannot post links as my comment would not show), under the section "Differences between Hainan Visa on Arrival & 30-day Free Visa Access", it still says "Most countries but except US and France" are eligible for Visa on Arrival. Not sure if you want to update that part as these 2 articles have conflicting information.

I also doubted it. Several days ago, I called 12367 and they connected me to Hainan Immigration Bureau. You know what? The official had no idea of Hainan VOA and talked about Hainan visa-free transit over and over. So it's quite challenging to do Hainan VOA.

But the good news is that after entering Hainan under visa-free policy, it's possible to apply for a short stay permit with the help of travel agency and travel to other parts of China mainland.