April 20, 2008, Hong Kong – Based upon an urgent email survey of its members, AmCham has developed a list of specific case studies for review by China's Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong. In response to complaints of numerous individual members that began early last week, AmCham polled them for case studies of business people having problems getting China visas, in an effort to provide the Chinese government with specific evidence that business people in Hong Kong are facing major disruptions to their cross-border operations, and substantially increased costs of doing business, due to unannounced changes to China's visa policy, as applied in Hong Kong.

The results of the AmCham poll have been sent to the China Foreign Ministry Office in Hong Kong, in an appeal to Commissioner Lu Xinhua for clarification of exactly what is changed in the new visa policy, the bases for making the changes, who will be affected and for how long.

Appeals have also been sent to the Hong Kong and U.S. governments, asking them to engage the China Foreign Ministry in discussions on how some of the harsher changes can be rolled back or revised to reduce the impact on Hong Kong's cross-border business ties with the Pearl River Delta and China at large.

Attached are the letter to Commissioner Lu and substantiating information from the AmCham survey:

For inquiry, please contact Ms Toni Lau, Press Affairs Manager of AmCham, at 2530-6915 or by email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

About AmCham Hong Kong

AmCham Hong Kong is the largest and most active international business association in the Special Administrative Region, with about 2,000 members, representing almost 800 American, Hong Kong, Chinese and other international companies from over 40 nationalities. Hong Kong imports from the U.S. were US$ 17.78 billions and its exports to the U.S. were US$ 7.95 billions in 2006. U.S. companies are Hong Kong's largest investors in insurance and second largest in financial institutions and the wholesale, retail and import/export trades. The S.A.R. represents the regional headquarters for about 250 U.S. companies. For more information about the AmCham Hong Kong, please visit www.amcham.org.hk

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