Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    SHENZHEN residents will soon be restricted to one visit to Hong Kong per week, from an unlimited number of daily trips, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported yesterday, citing a local official.

    “It will definitely happen,” said Michael Tien, a Hong Kong member of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress. “I have heard from very reliable government sources.”

    The move could slash the number of Shenzhen visitors by about 30 percent, the report said.

    The report said the Shenzhen government issued a ruling Saturday after a decision by the State Council to approve an “adjustment” in the number of trips that multiple-entry permit holders can make to Hong Kong. A notice circulating on the Internet said the travel curbs could come into effect as early as today.

    The notice set out details of the arrangement. The number of trips by multiple-entry permit holders will be limited to one a week. The trips cannot be saved up. They must be used or they will be lost.

    Answering a call yesterday, Shenzhen’s public security bureau neither denied nor confirmed the report, saying higher-level authorities would announce new rules publicly if the report was true.

    Shenzhen residents who want to apply for multiple-entry permits on the Internet couldn’t access the application system yesterday.

    The move would also help crack down on parallel traders, who buy products in Hong Kong to resell at a profit across the border, the report said.

    Some Shenzhen residents said they did not believe restricting the number of visits would help resolve the problem of cross-border smugglers — 60 percent of whom are believed to be Hongkongers.

    Only Shenzhen permanent residents can hold multiple-entry permits, which allow them to make as many trips as they want to Hong Kong, since the rule was implemented six years ago.

    Some 47 million mainland visitors streamed into Hong Kong last year, more than six times the population of the area.