Chinese Tourist Boycott of Japan Leads to Tourism Boom in Seoul Over Lunar New Year
From everything I have been reading the Japanese are actually happy about the reduction in Chinse tourists and the Koreans seem to be happy to have them, so a win-win for everyone:
Tang and his family were among the influx of Chinese tourists who visited Korea during the holiday period, which began on Feb. 15 and ended on Monday.
Beijing and Tokyo have been embroiled in a diplomatic dispute since November, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that Tokyo could respond militarily to a potential attack on Taiwan. In response, Beijing has advised citizens to avoid traveling to Japan.
Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism estimated that up to 190,000 Chinese tourists visited the country during the nine-day holiday period. The daily average was 44 percent higher than during last year’s holiday window, which ran from Jan. 24 to 29.
The fresh wave of Chinese tourists brought rare optimism to Korea’s retail and tourism sectors, which have been dampened by a consumption slowdown.
In the weeks leading up to the holiday, retailers and tourism operators rolled out intensive marketing campaigns tailored to Chinese tourists, including discounts and gift vouchers linked to Chinese payment platforms such as Alipay and WeChat Pay.
Chinese tourists have traditionally been big spenders, according to Korean tourism industry officials. The most recent government data shows that the average spending per Chinese visitor to Korea reached $1,622 in 2024, compared with the overall foreign visitor average of $1,372.
Even the Korean government has been pulling out all the stops to encourage more spending by Chinese group tourists. On Feb. 15, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Chae Hwi-young visited Myeong-dong, one of Seoul’s main shopping and tourism districts, to inspect facilities for foreign visitors, and called for efforts to foster a more welcoming atmosphere.
You can read more at the link.
a bunch of red chinese commies prowling around the country is not a good thing.
“red chinese commies”
To properly manage the problem, we must understand it and address it honestly.
The Modern Chinese are not communist in the abolish-private-property, seize-the-means-of-production sense.
They are a centrally managed, party-supervised, industrial-policy-driven, export-maximizing, subsidy-amplified, surveillance-enabled, currency-strategic, technology-acquiring, market-manipulating, state-directed, globally integrated, politically insulated, shareholder-tolerant-until-they-aren’t, billionaire-hosting-but-leash-holding, competition-welcoming-unless-strategic, intellectual-property-selectively-interpreting, nationalism-infused, long-horizon-planning, supply-chain-dominating, infrastructure-financing, influence-expanding, authoritarian capitalist superstructure that uses markets as tools rather than masters.
If they were communists, they would be the same level of global economic threat as Cuba, the Soviet Union, and 1970s Red Chinese Commies.
They must be managed differently than communists.
From David Zhang:
The boom for Korean tourism continues.
Korean Government to grant visa-free entry to Indonesia, expand automated gates to EU nationals
Lee Hae-rin, Korea Times,
Published Feb 25, 2026 3:44 pm KST
Setnaffa, I have a hard time making fun of people like Xi, Saddam, early Hitler, late Gaddafi, etc.
They know what they want and they aren’t afraid to get it. And what they want aligns with the best interest of their nation and the majority of people in it. This is to be respected in a world of leaders who destroy their nations and abandon their people, as we see in Canada, much of Europe, and pre-Trump USA.
Many in the global left and fake right are ridiculous people who are neither accomplished or threatening. For them, nothing but ridicule. Save the ridicule for puppets like Biden, Trudeau, and Macron.
But people like Xi and Putin are serious and accomplished people getting things done for their nation. They have popularity and trust levels most leaders can only dream of.
Nobody has to agree with them. China is a near existential threat to America and its system should not rule the world.
But it should be understood and respected enough to address honestly rather than dismissed as ridiculous.
Intellectual honesty is the best protection against the threats of the modern world.
CH, I can recognize someone as an unassailable leader and still scrawl “The King is s Fink!”
Except, from what I hear, in countries where the leader has a short johnson and only one testicle. They’ll arrest you in places like that.
Please do not come to SK…