China to "refresh" policy on visitors to Hong Kong

BEIJING, March 12 (Reuters) - The Chinese government will "refresh" its policy on granting entry permits to its citizens wishing to visit the separately administered territory of Hong Kong, a state-run paper said on Thursday, amid mounting anger at hordes of mainland shoppers.

"We are talking with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's government about refreshing the policies covering visits," Zhou Bo, deputy head of China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, told the official China Daily.

Zhou did not say when the talks would end, only that "it will not take a long time", the newspaper added.

Hong Kong people fume that mainland tourists crowd them out of malls and buy up all available supplies of daily necessities such as diapers and milk powder. Police have used pepper spray to break up confrontations as locals have cursed mainlanders, shouting at them to go back to China.

Zhou said that mainland visitors had been a great boost to the former British colony's economy, as well as for Macau, but that they had also become a heavy burden.