中國限制深圳居民赴香港頻次

HONG KONG — The Chinese government announced on Monday that residents of Shenzhen would be limited to one visit to Hong Kong a week, in a move to defuse public anger here over surging numbers of mainland Chinese visitors who cross the border to buy goods.

香港——中國政府週一宣佈，深圳居民每週只能前往香港一次，採取這一舉動是爲了平息公衆的憤怒。此前人數激增的內地遊客前往香港購物，引發了不滿。

Until now, many residents of Shenzhen, the city next to Hong Kong, could cross the border daily using multiple-entry permits — much more easily and often than many other mainland Chinese residents. But the cross-border visitors became the focus of raucous protests in Hong Kong in recent months. Demonstrators complained that many frequent commuters were smuggling goods back to China, pushing up demand in Hong Kong for medicines, cosmetics, milk powder and other goods, driving up shop rents, squeezing out other businesses and disrupting life near the border.

深圳毗鄰香港，到目前爲止，很多深圳居民每天都可以憑藉“一簽多行”簽註往返香港，比其他內地居民更便利、更頻繁。但最近幾個月，赴港旅客在香港遭遇了激烈的抗議。示威者抱怨稱，很多頻繁往來兩地的人員走私商品，並運回內地，加大了香港對藥品、化妝品、奶粉及其他商品的需求，推高了店租，排擠了其他生意，也擾亂了邊境附近地區的生活。

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security said on Monday that permanent residents of Shenzhen applying for new multiple-entry permits for Hong Kong would be limited to one visit a week, reported Xinhua, the state news agency.

官方通訊社新華社報道，中國公安部週一表示，將會向申請“一簽多行”簽註的深圳永久居民發放“一週一行”簽註。

“Tensions between the numbers of visitors to Hong Kong and the capacity of Hong Kong to absorb them has become increasingly clear,” Xinhua reported, citing an unidentified official from the Ministry of Public Security, which controls visas.

新華社報道，公安部的一名官員表示，“赴港旅遊人數與香港旅遊承載能力的矛盾日益顯現。”公安部負責發放簽註，報道中沒有提及這名官員的姓名。

The police on both the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese sides of the border have repeatedly tried to crack down on travelers who avoid duties by falsely claiming that they are carrying goods for their own use and by concealing or understating the value of goods. But the numbers of people crossing the border at Shenzhen have overwhelmed those efforts. In 2013, the Hong Kong introduced limits on the amount of milk powder, in great demand by Chinese parents, which travelers could take out of the territory.

香港和內地的警方多次採取行動，試圖打擊那些謊稱所帶商品爲自用、瞞報或低報商品價值，從而逃避關稅的遊客。但在深圳過關來往香港的遊客人數，超出了警方的應對能力。2013年，香港對於攜帶奶粉的數量做出了限制，內地家長對奶粉的需求極大，而遊客可以將奶粉帶出香港。

The cross-border merchants have helped keep alive tensions in Hong Kong over mainland Chinese influence, following street demonstrations last year against Beijing’s proposals for electoral changes in Hong Kong that would deny many residents’ demands for an open election for the city’s leader, or chief executive. Since Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, it has maintained its own laws and border controls, meaning that mainland visitors cannot cross the border at will.

去年香港爆發街頭抗議，反對北京提出的香港選舉改革方案。該方案回絕了香港民衆通過公開選舉產生香港領導人的訴求。之後香港出現了針對內地影響的緊張情緒，而往返於兩地的商販在一定程度上延續了這種緊張。香港是前英國殖民地，自1997年迴歸中國以來，香港保留了自己的法律和邊境管控權，這意味着內地人不能隨意進入香港。

Hong Kong residents who had joined the protests against the cross-border traders said the decision showed that Beijing could be forced to make concessions.

參加抗議活動反對往返兩地的商販的香港居民表示，這一決定說明，通過施壓可以讓北京方面做出讓步。

“This shows that our voice can make a difference,” said Andy Yung Wai-yip, a beach lifeguard who said he took part in the protests against the mainland traders, as well as in the pro-democracy demonstrations last year. “I was pessimistic before, but this gives me hope for our movement,” he said Sunday, after the Hong Kong news media reported the proposed visa changes.

“這表明我們的聲音能夠帶來改變，”海灘救生員翁煒業（Andy Yung Wai-yip，音）表示。他說自己也參加了反對內地商販的抗議活動，以及去年的民主示威活動。“我以前很悲觀，但這件事激起了我對運動的希望，”週日，他在香港媒體報道簽註改革的提議之後說。

But while the protesters have cast the visitors as a blight, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials have said that critics are exaggerating the problem of smuggling and warned that tensions were deterring mainlanders from visiting Hong Kong, which relies on tourism for 5 percent of its economic activity. In 2014, mainland Chinese made 47.2 million visits to Hong Kong, an increase of 16 percent over the previous year. The numbers continued to climb until March, when Hong Kong officials said there was a drop, apparently prompted by the protests.

儘管抗議者對遊客視若仇讎，但是內地人和香港官員都表示，批評人士誇大了走私問題，並警告稱緊張局面讓內地人不敢造訪香港。香港5%的經濟活動依賴於旅遊業。2014年，赴港內地遊客達4720萬人次，同比增長了16%。直到3月前，相關數字一直在增加。3月，香港官員稱數據出現下跌，這似乎是由抗議引起的。

In the Shatin district, one of the parts of northern Hong Kong packed with mainland visitors shopping with trolleys to lug goods across the border, shop workers said the visitor limits would hurt business. Share prices of several Hong Kong retailers fell on Monday morning.

香港北部的很多區域都擠滿了推着手推車購物，再拖着貨物過境的內地遊客，沙田區就是其中之一。這裏的店員說，限制遊客的政策將會影響生意。週一上午，幾家香港零售商的股價都出現了下跌。

“It will definitely hurt our business and the retail sector,” Fong Hon-chung, a manager of the Kwok Shing Dispensary, said in an interview before the Chinese government announcement. He said about two-thirds of the dispensary’s business came from mainland shoppers. “Some of the pharmacies here will inevitably go out of business.”

“那肯定會損害我們的生意和零售行業，”國城蔘茸中西大藥房(Kwok Shing Dispensary)的經理方漢聰（Fong Hon-chung，音）在內地政府公佈這項政策前接受採訪時說。他說，藥房大約三分之二的生意都來自內地顧客。 “這裏的一些藥房不可避免地會倒閉。”

One-tenth of the total number of mainland Chinese visits to Hong Kong last year were made by Shenzhen residents who crossed the border more than once a week, Leung Chun-ying, the chief executive of Hong Kong, said at a news conference on Monday. But many of the people who smuggle goods from Hong Kong into China are Hong Kong residents, who will not be affected by the limits on mainlanders, Mr. Leung said. He added that the police and other agencies would develop new approaches to deter smuggling by Hong Kong residents.

香港行政長官樑振英(Leung Chun-ying)在週一的新聞發佈會上表示，去年每週到香港超過一次的深圳居民，佔赴港內地遊客總人次的十分之一。樑振英說，但是很多從香港走私貨物到內地的人，都是香港居民，他們不會因爲針對內地人的限制而受到影響。他還表示，警方和其他機構將制定新政策，來遏制香港居民的走私行爲。

“I suppose the new policy is only fair if it applies to them as well,” Frand Fong, a Shenzhen resident visiting Hong Kong on what he said was his weekly shopping trip, said in an interview. “I’m too busy at work to come here more than once a week, so I’m not affected.”

“我覺得新政策要同樣適用於他們，才稱得上公平，”到訪香港的深圳居民弗蘭德·馮(Frand Fong)在接受採訪時說。他說自己每週都會來香港購物。 “我工作太忙了，沒辦法每週來香港超過一次，所以我不會受影響。”