Hacker News Reader

Comment by smcl | Hacker News Reader

I don't think that tourism is as much of a big deal to China as you think, and additionally I've got a feeling that most potential tourists wouldn't be aware of this news item or could dismiss it as "those people probably did something stupid, it won't apply to me"

View on HN

But this doesn't apply to just tourists, this applies to all foreign visitors including the business people who drive Chinese economy.

If the business people start avoiding China, there impact on it's already slowing economy would be devastating.

From what I've heard, in the last few years, China has become much more hostile towards foreigners living in China, and the government has significantly turned up the anti-foreigner rhetoric.

> "those people probably did something stupid, it won't apply to me"

To be fair, he did attempt to smuggle "methamphetamines to Australia in pellets stuffed inside tires".

It's not like they picked some random foreigner and accused him of something.

When the protests were in egypt, tourists stopped visiting the country. This had a major impact on the economy. So this kind of stuff can definitely have an impact. The situation in China is different though. Egypts economy is very dependent on tourism, while China's isn't. On the other hand, country wide protests with anarchy are a different thing from a government killing one individual in some shitty trade war.

Most tourism in China probably comes from within China.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com