However, Beijing has a policy whereby some passengers in transit to third countries can stay in the Chinese capital for 72 hours without a visa, so the two men may have not needed to apply for a Chinese visa if they had tickets to another destination.
Strange Malaysia Airlines should know what they did when they checked in with the airline..if they were just going to be passing through or not because the Airlines checks your passport to confirm you have the right visas if there needed aheady of time when you’re going into these countries ...because they don’t want to have fly you back if you’re not allowed in that country...