China is rolling back some of the world’s strictest COVID-19 controls
China to Resume Issuing Passports and Visas as COVID-19 Controls EaseCFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images — 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.
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. The National Immigration Administration of China said it will start taking applications Jan. 8 for passports for tourists to go abroad.
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. 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.
South Korean officials said possible additional measures for arrivals from China will be announced Friday.
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