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China cuts back on visas
24/07/2008 11:35 - (SA)
Beijing - China has clamped down further on issuing business visas during the Olympic period, government officials said on Thursday, in the latest expansion of already-tight entry restrictions for the games.
Beijing has stopped issuing invitation letters needed for visas for businesspeople until late September, unless it involves employment or to execute business contracts, an official with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce said.
"We don't take in applications related to any other general business matters, such as attending conferences, visiting factories and business negotiations. Such applications will not be handled until after September 20," Chen Yu said.
The change began around the beginning of July, he said.
China has tightened its visa rules to keep out foreign activists and foreigners not properly employed in Beijing, but businessmen have also been caught in the net.
Authorities do not want a repeat in Beijing of raucous protests that greeted the Olympic torch as it passed through London, Paris and San Francisco earlier in the year.
The visas restrictions are part of a massive security operation to ensure a trouble-free games, in line with its desire to project an image of a modern China. Dissidents have been monitored, or even arrested, and migrant workers told to go home.
In Shanghai, the site of some of the Olympic football competition, a notice on the website of the Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission, said it will not support visas for routine business visits, market research or training until mid-September. Important business visits will be considered, it said, but the length of time will be shortened.
Travel agents in Hong Kong, a major gateway into China, reported in April that the government visa office had declared multiple-entry business visas would not be available from mid-April until mid-October. In the past, such visas were easily obtainable, and businessmen would take regular trips to the mainland to check up on offices or factories.
At the time both the American and European chambers of commerce in Hong Kong sent urgent letters to the Chinese government, raising concerns over the impact on businesses.
"Obviously, this is not great news. Obviously, we prefer to have no restrictions," Kate Pollitt, executive director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said.
Richard Choi, the manager of the Canada China Business Council in Shanghai, said he did not think it would affect businesses too much. Such security was natural for any country hosting the Olympic Games, he said.
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