International Desk: China has stopped issuing short-term visas to individuals from South Korea and Japan in retaliation for Covid restrictions on Chinese travellers.
Visas for South Koreans entering China as tourists have been suspended, Beijing’s embassy in Seoul said.
And Japanese media reported China was imposing similar measures there.
It’s a tit-for-tat move which Beijing says will remain in place until “discriminatory” entry restrictions against China are lifted.
Last week, South Korea stopped issuing tourist visas for those coming from China, which the Chinese foreign ministry called “unacceptable” and “unscientific”.
Reacting to China’s latest move, South Korea’s foreign ministry told the BBC that its policy towards arrivals from China was “in accordance with scientific and objective evidence”.
