In what appears to be another big step away from anti-virus controls, China says it will resume issuing passports for tourism.
This development means many Chinese would have the opportunity to go 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.
