China will resume short-term visas for South Korean ers after Seoul lifted pandemic-related restrictions that infuriated Beijing.
China will begin processing short-term visas for South Koreans for “business, transit and other personal matters” starting Saturday, the Chinese embassy in Seoul said Wednesday in a message on its official WeChat account.
China stopped issuing short-term visas to South Koreans in January after Seoul imposed COVID restrictions on travelers from China, as Beijing’s sudden dismantling of its questionable “zero COVID” policy may spawn new coronavirus variants.
South Korea’s government began issuing visas last week as the wave of COVID infections in China peaked, as it has in the past indicated it would limit visas until the end of February.
China’s Foreign Ministry at the time when South Korea’s move “a step in the right direction” to facilitate exchanges between the two countries.
More than a dozen countries, plus Japan, South Korea and the United States, imposed restrictions on arrivals from China after Beijing lifted lockdowns, mass testing and quarantine following infrequent mass protests that expired last year.
Beijing has condemned the restrictions as discriminatory and without clinical basis. Some fitness experts have also questioned the lack of brakes given the spread of the virus and the wide availability of vaccines.
South Korea is one of the top tourism resources in China, with more than four million South Koreans in the country in 2018. Chinese nationals are South Korea’s largest tourism organization, accounting for more than a third of South Korea’s 17. 5 million arrivals. 2019.