Britain’s top official in Hong Kong yesterday expressed concern about new pre-Olympics visa curbs on foreigners entering China from the territory.
Beijing tightened entry rules last week because of increased security ahead of the Games.
“Clearly there’s a degree of concern,” said Andrew Seaton, Britain’s new consul-general to Hong Kong. “The British Chamber I know has been very concerned about the real impact it has on the ability of their membership to pursue business in China.”
He said Britain had taken up the matter with Chinese authorities in Hong Kong, Beijing and London.
“As far as I know we do not yet have that precise clarification of the new rules that we are seeking,” Seaton told reporters on the first day of new consul-general job.
Beijing stopped issuing multi-entry visas around the start of this month and will not resume issuing them until October, travel agents in several countries have said.
Citizens of 33 countries, including India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Nepal, have been barred from applying for China visas in Hong Kong and will now have to apply from their home countries.
The rules don’t apply to foreigners resident in Hong Kong.
A number of other foreign business chambers have also voiced criticism, saying businesspeople aren’t able to obtain multiple-entry visas and have been stymied by extra red tape, requiring proof of hotel vouchers and a return air-ticket before visas are issued. The American Chamber of Commerce said it was receiving daily complaints of rejected visa applications.
“There’s a real disconnection between the announcements and the actuality,” chamber president Richard Vuylsteke said.
China has insisted multi-entry visas are available but said officials would “consider the real need of the applicant” in granting one.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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