Got to hand it to the Chinese on this one. An elegantly simple solution to a current problem.
Wish this country had the balls to dispense with political correctness:
newsmax.com
HONG KONG (UPI) -- Travel agents in Hong Kong and Beijing said
China has banned nationals from 19 countries from buying air
tickets for its state-owned airlines in a step-up in security following
the terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York City in
September.
"We were told not to sell tickets to Muslim passengers mainly for
routes going to North America. European routes were later added,"
said one travel agent in Beijing.
"I cannot sell tickets to people from the Middle East who want to fly
Chinese airlines to the United States," said another travel agent.
A memo was sent to major ticketing agencies, possibly throughout
the world, instructing them not to issue tickets to people from a list
of countries, according to the South China Morning Post on
Saturday. The notice also said that passengers from named
countries who already had tickets should be contacted and told
they could not fly with the airlines. The memo suggested that under
certain circumstances the ruling could be waived.
The memo said, "Tickets shall not be issued to people from these
20 countries again. Tickets already issued should be canceled and
fully refunded, or processed only after receiving confirmation from
the local embassy or consulate. People from these countries shall
be strictly controlled. But be flexible, they are being told, and
consult the local embassy or consulate to discuss how stringent the
edict should be."
The countries listed are Afghanistan, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan,
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, Sudan, Kuwait, Libya, and
Algeria. It added people of Palestinian or Pakistani origin with
"unusual background" should also be denied tickets.
The decision to ban certain nationals from China's airlines came
from rulings by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Civil Aviation
Department, said the notice.
China's state-run airlines carry a majority of the passengers
traveling to the mainland. China Southern Airlines, China Eastern
Airlines and Air China also fly most of the internal routes in China.
"I think that awareness of the nature of discrimination on the basis
of race is very weak in China, "said Sophia Woodman, Research
Director in Hong Kong with Human Rights in China. "This kind of
blanket ban is clearly not the way to prevent terrorism and is
discriminatory."
Earlier this week officials with Pakistan's consulate in Hong Kong
lodged a complaint with local authorities and with China's Foreign
Ministry in Beijing after numbers of Pakistani nationals in this
former British colony were denied visas for the mainland.
"The numbers who have been refused are in the hundreds," said
Naila Maqsood, the Vice Consul-General of Pakistan's consulate
in Hong Kong. "These are all people who reside in Hong Kong and
have Hong Kong ID cards. They have not been given any specific
reason for refusal."
Many of those who applied for visas to the mainland have traveled
there on business numerous times and have never been refused
entry before, she said. There are about 25,000 Pakistani nationals
living in Hong Kong and many are businesspeople whose jobs
require them to travel to mainland China.
"To punish an entire nation, or the members of a faith, for the sins
of a few is cruel and unjust," railed an editorial in the South China
Morning Post on Saturday.
"In a particularly ham-fisted gesture they [China] appear to have
singled out Pakistanis, implying they are persona non grata,
regardless of what travel document they hold. This is an extreme
over-reaction, which can only backfire."
"My own apprehension is that they don't want any Pakistani
nationals in China before President Bush arrives in Shanghai at the
end of October," said Maqsood.
President George Bush is expected to attend an informal
economic leaders meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation in Shanghai from Oct. 17 to 21. Analysts in Hong
Kong and Beijing have questioned whether the U.S. president will
stick to his schedule and attend the meeting while Operation
Enduring Freedom is in progress.
Diplomatic sources in Hong Kong who declined to be identified
said people from Middle Eastern countries were facing the same
problems as the Pakistanis in obtaining visas for mainland China.
They said they believed China was increasing security before the
APEC meeting and Bush's arrival.
(Kirk Troy in Beijing contributed to this story.)
Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved. |
