China to resume issuing passports, visas as virus curbs ease

By JOE McDONALD
Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — China says it will resume issuing passports for tourism in another big step away from anti-virus controls that isolated the country for almost three years. That sets up a potential flood of millions of Chinese going abroad for next month’s Lunar New Year holiday. The announcement adds to abrupt changes that are rolling back some of the world’s strictest anti-virus controls as President Xi Jinping’s government tries to reverse an economic slump. Rules that confined millions of people to their homes kept China’s infection rate low but fueled public frustration and crushed economic growth. China stopped issuing most visas and passports at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.