Macau’s Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, says he has received no information from mainland China that it has tightened any visa policies to prevent tourists from making multiple trips to Macau.
According to some local media reports in Macau, there are rumors circulating that several mainland cities and provinces have tightened entry and exit measures over concerns some citizens have been making repeated trips for gambling purposes. It has also been suggested that China has cracked down on the use of business visas to enter Macau for the same reasons.
While Secretary Wong said such a crackdown could be an enforcement action taken by mainland public security authorities in accordance with the relevant provisions of China’s criminal law, he insisted that Macau has not received any notification about this issue.
“The Macau SAR government would report to the Central Government were Macau’s tourism industry to face any negative impacts [from such a policy],” he said. “The right of Mainland residents to travel to Macau would be protected, provided such activity did not infringe any laws on the mainland.”
In a note, JP Morgan’s DS Kim, Amanda Cheng and Livy Lyu said they had received conflicting information on the matter, with Beijing stating there had been no change to the Macau IVS (Individual Visit Scheme) visa system although there was “stricter scrutiny now.”
Officials from Guangdong, Macau’s primary source of visitation, also stated no change to its visa policy, however immigration officers in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Dalian, Changsha and Wuhan said getting an IVS visa was tougher than previously.
“Two officers in Hangzhou told us that ‘there’s an annual limit for Macau visa now’ and ‘one can only visit Macau once a year’,” the analysts wrote. “One officer didn’t tell us why, but the other said this annual restriction is related to COVID.”
JP Morgan said there was not enough evidence yet to draw any meaningful conclusions on whether there has been a tightening of visa policy and, if so, whether it is related to China’s crackdown on cross-border gambling.
China’s Ministry of Public Security held its fourth meeting on the issue last week.
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