Skift Take
Trip.com Group’s James Liang warned that countries that impose blanket bans on Chinese travelers will see a China tit-for-tat later. It may not happen, but here are some of the ways it could.
"Chinese tourists will once again be one of the most welcome groups of guests while academic and commercial partnerships between China and the world will become even closer. The choices made by governments in the face of the coronavirus emergency may very well determine their prospects for cooperation with China in the future."
So wrote James Liang, co-founder and executive chairman of China’s largest travel agency, Trip.com Group, in an opinion in the South China Morning Post on February 8. Liang, also a part-time professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, said he is calling “for calm from the governments of the world” in this opinion.
But the message of a veiled threat from China has also been sent across. It serves as a warning to countries, or validates what they already have sensed, which accounts for the wide disparity in how governments have moved to restrict entry of Chinese visitors, torn as they are between protecting citizens and a major tourism and economic partner.
According to Liang, the consular department of China’s foreign affairs ministry has grouped these restrictions into three categories. Category I bars entry to all Chinese and foreign nationals who have been in China over the past fortnight, through such measures as visa refusals and quarantine. Countries that do so include the U.S., Austra
