China says it will resume issuing passports for tourism in another big step away from anti-virus controls that isolated the country for almost three years, setting up a potential flood of Chinese going abroad for next month’s Lunar New Year holiday.
The announcement Tuesday adds to abrupt changes that are
rolling back some of the world’s strictest anti-virus controls as President Xi
Jinping’s government tries to reverse an economic slump. Rules that confined
millions of people to their homes kept China’s infection rate low but fueled
public frustration and crushed economic growth.
The latest decision could send free-spending Chinese
tourists to revenue-starved destinations in Asia and Europe for Lunar New Year,
which begins Jan. 22 and usually is the country’s busiest travel season. But it
also presents a danger they might spread COVID-19 as infections surge in China.
Travel services companies Trip.com and Qunar said
international ticket bookings and searches for visa information on their
websites rose five to eight times after Tuesday’s announcement. Top
destinations included Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the United States, Britain
and Australia.
Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan have responded to the
Chinese wave of infections by requiring virus tests for visitors from China.
China stopped issuing visas to foreigners and passports to
its own people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
The National Immigration Administration of China said it
will start taking applications Jan. 8 for passports for tourists to go abroad.
The agency said it will take applications to extend, renew
or reissue visas but gave no indication when they might be issued to first-time
applicants.
China will “gradually resume” admitting foreign visitors,
the agency said. It gave no indication when tourist travel from abroad might
resume.
The changes will “create better conditions for orderly
cross-border travel” and “bring more benefits to global economic development,”
said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin.
China will “work with all countries” to “restore safety and
stability to global industrial and supply chains and promote world economic
recovery,” Wang said.
Health experts and economists expect the ruling Communist
Party to keep limits on travel into China until at least mid-2023 while it
carries out a campaign to vaccinate millions of elderly people. Experts say
that is necessary to prevent a public health crisis.
During the pandemic, Chinese with family emergencies or work
travel deemed important could obtain passports, but some students and
businesspeople with visas to go to foreign countries were blocked by border
guards from leaving. The handful of foreign businesspeople and others who were
allowed into China were quarantined for up to one week.
Before the pandemic, China was the biggest source of foreign
tourists for most of its Asian neighbors and an important market for Europe and
the United States.
The government has dropped or eased most quarantine, testing
and other restrictions within China, joining the United States, Japan and other
governments in trying to live with the virus instead of stamping out
transmission.
Japan and India have begun requiring virus tests for
travelers from China. South Korea tests all visitors with elevated
temperatures. South Korea says anyone who tests positive will be quarantined at
home or in a hotel for a week.
South Korean officials said possible additional measures for
arrivals from China will be announced Friday.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to relate
internal discussions, said Washington is considering taking similar steps.
Taiwan on Wednesday announced visitors from China will be
tested starting Jan. 1.
Hong Kong authorities said Wednesday they would scrap some
of the city’s COVID-19 restrictions, including PCR tests for all inbound
travelers and vaccination requirements to enter certain venues. The easing
comes as the southern city prepares for a reopening of borders with mainland
China next month.
On Monday, the Chinese government said it would remove
quarantine requirements for travelers arriving from abroad, also effective Jan.
8. Foreign companies welcomed the change as an important step to revive
slumping business activity
Business groups have warned global companies were shifting
investment away from China because foreign executives were blocked from
visiting.
The American Chamber of Commerce in China says more than 70%
of companies that responded to a poll this month expect the impact of the
latest wave of outbreaks to last no more than three months, ending in early
2023.
The government has stopped reporting nationwide case numbers
but announcements by some cities indicate at least tens and possibly hundreds
of millions of people might have been infected since the surge began in early
October.
Experts have forecast 1 million to 2 million deaths in China
through the end of 2023.
Also Monday, the government downgraded the official
seriousness of COVID-19 and removed it from a list of illnesses that require
quarantine. It said authorities would stop tracking close contacts and
designating areas as being at high or low risk of infection.
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