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China has allowed its online travel agencies to resume selling group tours to South Korea after a prolonged diplomatic spat over the installation of a U.S.-backed, anti-missile system in South Korea, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.
China banned group tours to South Korea in March last year after Seoul agreed to install the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (THAAD). The move badly hurt South Korea's retail and service sectors. {nL4N1M9053}
Chinese tourists were told to avoid any store and hotel run by conglomerate Lotte Group, which provided land in South Korea for the THAAD missile system. Lotte stores in China were also shut down amid the political tensions.
As tensions thawed between the nations, China in November last year allowed over-the-counter sales of package tours from Beijing and Shandong to South Korea, but kept online curbs in place.
Yonhap said on Wednesday that Chinese online travel agency Ctrip was again offering group tours to South Korea.
"As China's largest online travel agency Ctrip resumed the sale of group tours to South Korea, other online agencies will do the same," said a tourism industry source quoted by Yonhap.
Ctrip was not immediately available for comment.
The president of Korean Air Lines said last month its China route traffic remained weak due to "political issues".
South Korea and the United States say the THAAD system is designed to better respond to North Korea's missile threat, but Beijing said the system's radar can probe deep into its territory, undermining its security.
Further prolonging negotiations for a major free trade deal in the Asia-Pacific will put it at risk of losing credibility, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Wednesday, as the leaders of the countries involved met to complete the pact.The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand are trying to achieve full conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement in 2019.The countries had earlier hoped to conclude talks for the China-backed deal by the end of this year."Market access negotiations have advanced substantially, bringing us closer to finalisation next year. We are now at the final stage of negotiations," Lee told a meeting of the leaders of the 16 countries involved in the talks.Making waves in West, China luring Pacific islands with Belt and RoadHe added: "Further prolonging negotiations puts the RCEP at risk of losing credibility and support from our stakeholders and will mean missing a major opportunity to bring in tangible benefits to our businesses and citizens".Negotiations for RCEP began in 2012, which envisions the creation of a free trade zone that will encompass 45 percent of world population and more than a third of the world’s GDP, but does not involve the United States.RCEP talks were given new impetus after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the competing Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal in one of the first acts of his administration.The draft of a statement to be issued by RCEP nations later in the week, which was reviewed by Reuters, said the group would instruct "ministers and negotiators to work toward the full conclusion of the RCEP negotiations in 2019." Turkey, China justice ministers seek more cooperationUS should create fund to counter Chinese infrastructure deals: commissionChinese premier says no winner in trade war with US
Prolonging negotiations could put China-backed trade deal at risk: Singapore PM
President Xi Jinping will showcase China's Belt and Road initiative to Pacific leaders at a regional summit on Friday, diplomats say, with Western countries watching warily for signs of Beijing's growing clout.The competition for influence between China and Western allies Australia, New Zealand and the United States, is likely to provide a strong undercurrent at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea."China is showing a desire for a bigger role in the region, and that is out in the open like it has never been before," said a senior British diplomat who declined to be named as she is not authorised to talk to the media.China has said it will announce "important measures for further cooperation" at the summit. Western diplomats believe that probably means formally extending its Belt and Road plans into the Pacific.Turkey, China justice ministers seek more cooperationFirst proposed by Xi in 2013, the initiative promotes expanding land and sea links between Asia, Africa and Europe, with billions of dollars pledged for infrastructure development.Western governments harbour suspicions that Beijing's professed desire to spread prosperity masks an underlying intention to become a more dominant power.Tongan Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pōhiva is one of several island nation leaders who will meet collectively with Xi, having already been asked by Beijing to sign up to the Belt and Road."We're discussing that right now"," Lopeti Senituli, a political advisor to the Tongan premier, told Reuters.For Pacific nations, China may offer support for much needed infrastructure and development. Xi's vision to provide links to a bigger marketplace could also prove hard to resist for leaders of the remote, fledgling economies.US should create fund to counter Chinese infrastructure deals: commissionWHOSE PATCH?For China, extending its influence into the Pacific would lessen the sense of maritime containment, and also potentially secure support from grateful, indebted governments at international forums, where numbers can count.Three sources familiar with the matter, including the British official, said that Western nations had been informed that Vanuatu, the Cook Islands and Niue have agreed sign onto Belt and Road. Niue and the Cook Islands did not respond to an emailed request for comment, but the Cook Islands' Finance Minister Mark Brown told Radio New Zealand last week that his government would be signing.Vanuatu's Prime Minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu said in a message on Twitter that he "did not believe" Vanuatu had committed to Belt and Road but he would check.China's official Belt and Road website reported that Fiji had made a commitment on Monday, joining the likes of Samoa and Papua New Guinea.Chinese premier says no winner in trade war with USChina's footprint in the region has been growing in the past decade. Pacific governments now owe about $1.3 billion in concessional debt to China, raising fears in the West, that the region was becoming more susceptible to Beijing's diplomatic pressure.A senior Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday no country can block Beijing's cooperation with Pacific Island nations.Xi's meeting with the island nation leaders, which a U.S. diplomatic source said will be held without observers from the West, comes after a series of Western initiatives to shore up ties in the Pacific.Australia last week declared the Pacific "our patch" as it offered A$3 billion ($2.18 billion) in cheap infrastructure loans and grants.
Making waves in West, China luring Pacific islands with Belt and Road
The Turkish and Chinese justice ministers on Wednesday signed a deal on enhancing cooperation between the two ministries.Turkey’s Abdulhamit Gül, in Beijing for talks, signed a memorandum of understanding with his Chinese counterpart Fu Zhenghua.“We had a very fruitful meeting with the minister of justice. We talked about our problems,” said Gül.“We spoke very openly about cooperation on the judicial issues of both countries and [our efforts to] solve our problems on these issues, as well as increasing cooperation,” Gül added.Dialogue between Turkey and China has increased due to contacts among the two countries’ leaders, said Gül, and this led to cooperation in the economy, trade, and politics as well as the judiciary.Gül said Fu was invited to next year’s International Istanbul Law Congress. He said that with the help of this congress, officials from both countries will meet every year to discuss cooperation and judicial problems.He added that eight Turkish prosecutors and judges are getting Chinese language education at Beijing’s Public Security University and that it is very important to know both the Turkish and Chinese judicial systems.‘Turkey can play bigger role in new global order’
Turkey, China justice ministers seek more cooperation