Jakarta, goldensamoyed Indonesia
—
China’s major airlines have extended offers of full refunds or
full refunds
for flights to
Japan
for another three months, as the simmering diplomatic dispute between Beijing and Tokyo shows no signs of abating.
On Friday (5/12), the Bamboo Curtain country’s airlines, namely Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, along with several other airlines, including Hainan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Spring Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, issued a statement allowing free ticket refunds or itinerary changes for flights booked until March 28 next year.
Last month, Chinese airlines offered
refund
free tickets or schedule changes for Japan flights booked until December 31, 2025, just hours after Beijing’s travel warning on November 14, which urged Chinese citizens to avoid visiting the Land of Sakura due to security concerns.
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Chinese state television CCTV reported on Monday that more than 1,900 flights from China to Japan scheduled for this month had been cancelled, citing data from online platforms.The figure represents more than 40 percent of flights from mainland China to Japan scheduled for December.
As reported
South China Morning Post
, over the years, Japan has been a top destination for Chinese tourists and popular among Chinese students.
Tensions between Beijing and Tokyo escalated last month after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signaled his country could deploy military force in the event of conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
Takaichi’s comments made him the first serving Japanese leader since World War II to publicly link the Taiwan contingency to the possible deployment of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.He refused to retract those comments despite Beijing’s repeated protests.
On Thursday (4/12), Beijing rejected Takaichi’s apparent attempt to ease tensions when he said in parliament a day earlier that Tokyo’s position on Taiwan remained unchanged.
China’s Foreign Ministry criticized his latest statement as a “distraction of the facts”, warning that it “absolutely does not accept” Takaichi’s refusal to walk back his comments.
Beijing views Taiwan as part of China that must be united, by force if necessary.The majority of countries, including the United States and Japan, do not recognize Taiwan as an independent country.
However, Washington opposes any attempt to seize the self-ruled island by force and is committed to supplying Taiwan with weapons.
Since the free refund offer was launched, hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists have canceled their travel plans to Japan, causing airlines to cancel an increasing number of scheduled flights.
Chinese media reports last week indicated that several domestic airlines canceled flights on 12 of their routes to Japan, including popular tourist destinations Kyoto and Osaka.
Additionally, some employees of Chinese state-owned companies have been advised to cancel immediate travel plans to Japan.Diplomatic sources said Beijing had also frozen a youth exchange program with Tokyo amid the fallout from the crisis.
According to various travel platforms, Russia, South Korea and several countries in Southeast Asia are now seeing a surge in bookings from Chinese tourists who were supposed to visit Japan.
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