News Asia
China To Resume Short-Term Visa Approvals For South Korean Tourists
(CTN NEWS) – BEIJING – The Chinese Embassy in Seoul announced on Wednesday that it would resume issuing short-term visas to residents of South Korea this weekend, easing the prohibitions it imposed in early January as retaliation for its neighbor’s tougher border controls around COVID-19.
The resumption of visa issuing on Saturday comes after South Korea lifted comparable restrictions the previous weekend as COVID-19 infections in China declined.
Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, stated during a press conference last Friday that Beijing will “actively examine” eliminating the limits placed on the granting of short-term visas to South Korean citizens on January 10 that were put in place.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning holds a press conference in Beijing on Feb. 10, 2023. (Kyodo)
Before China reopened its borders and lifted quarantine restrictions on January 8 despite concerns over the country’s extensive COVID-19 infections, South Korea, Japan, and several other nations tightened border procedures for passengers from China.
Beijing subsequently stopped issuing visas to Japanese and South Korean visitors, branding the entry restrictions on visitors from China as “discriminatory,” although the ban on Japanese people was reversed on January 29.
By the end of the month, Japan may decide to relax border controls for visitors coming from China.
According to a government source, Tokyo intends to use a selective method to testing arrivals rather than demanding to test of all visitors from China.
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