China will limit the number of visits that residents of the southern city of Shenzhen can make to neighboring Hong Kong, state media said on Monday (April 13), to ease the flow of mainland visitors in the former British colony that has led to tensions.
The Ministry of Public Security’s Exit-Entry Administration Bureau will restrict residents to one Hong Kong visit a week with immediate effect, compared with an unlimited number of daily trips previously, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said.
The decision highlights growing awareness among Chinese leaders of the groundswell of discontent in Hong Kong, where many residents have been frustrated with the rising number of mainland Chinese visiting the crowded city.
Locals in the Hong Kong border town of Sheung Shui, which has seen violent protests in the last few weeks, said the number of cross-border traders in the area had decreased overnight.
“There’s already a difference here, there are hardly any parallel traders here. Usually this area is packed with them,” said factory worker, Horace Chan.
Hong Kong’s leader Leung Chun-ying said on Monday that it wasn’t an easy decision for Beijing to limit travel into Hong Kong, bucking China’s trend towards easing immigration measures for its citizens in their travels.
However he admitted it would not stop the problem.
“We understand that even with these new restrictions there will still be Hong Kong residents parallel trading,” said Leung.
Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that ensured its autonomy, had proposed visa limits to Beijing last June. Although Shenzhen is just a short train ride from Hong Kong, mainland visitors require permission from the Chinese government to enter.
While the tide has boosted spending in luxury shops, restaurants and hotels, mainland visitors have been blamed for pushing up shop rents and property prices, and stripping shops of daily necessities such as baby formula and cosmetics.
Hong Kong’s leader Leung said the curbs would combat smugglers who lug masses of goods on trolleys across the border multiple times a day, which they then sell for a profit in mainland China.
Of 4.59 million visits by people who travelled to Hong Kong more than once a week last year, he said, 30 percent were by Shenzhen permanent residents with multiple entry permits.
About 47 million mainland Chinese visitors streamed into Hong Kong last year, more than six times its population.
Travel industry executives said mainland tourist numbers had already been declining due to political tension in Hong Kong, including democracy demonstrations and protests against mainland shoppers that had at times resulted in harassment of visitors. (Reuters)
