Businesses across China also are reeling ......(forbes.com)

quote
from a government decision to tighten security screening of applicants for both business and tourist visas.
Some tourists have been blocked from traveling, while others simply have been turned off. Upscale hotels, many of which went through costly renovations for the Olympics, have been half-empty in the past three months. Industry executives say it is the worst slump since a severe pneumonia outbreak that jumped from China to the world.
"It is almost as bad as 2003, when SARS broke out," said Matthew Lin, director of Bravo Tours China in Shanghai, where he said business is down 30 percent. "Many foreigners canceled their trips or didn't bother to come."
unquote
Congratulations - Job well done !
Full report here:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/07/29/ap5265994.html

YES !

The "boomerang" of the china visa rules starts to fly at increasing speed - read this from "THE NEW YORK TIMES":
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/business/worldbusiness/24visa.html?em&ex=1214366400&en=22e5075f377e428f&ei=5087%0A
Directly hurt by this: Mainland business !
Be assured more non-sense is in the pipeline - for example: Un-installing all doors in Beijings public toilets in certain areas.

SCMP 02.05.: Editorial by Mr James Tien

On page A17 "Closed door-policy" by Mr James Tien (Chairman of the HK Tourism Board + Liberal Party, also owner of chain G2000) - here some parts - and how very much right he is:
QUOTE
".........The potential impact is grave not only for our city and for westerners doing business through Hong Kong but for the mainland as well....................For people who doing business in Guangdong, those multiple-entry visas are more than just a convenience. They are a neccessity upon which, in some cases, the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people depend.......Hong Kong's reputation as a gateway to China, meanwhile, is in ever greater jeopardy the longer this fiasco continues...........the absolute least our own government should do is mediate and find out what is going on. Explanations must be sought and delivered with urgency and without further delay"
UNQUOTE

One more readers letter from an english teacher "Visa application an impossibility" - She wanted to go with a group of teachers - hotel booking is on the schools name + they have hired a bus - so she simply had a problem to get a visa + she gave up.