CHINESE HOTELS TOLD TO REFUSE PAKISTANI GUESTS

Police have ordered some low-end hotels in the Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou not to allow guests from five Muslimmajority countries — including Pakistan — to stay, though China’s foreign ministry said it had never heard of the policy.

Three hotels with rooms costing about 150 yuan ($23) a night told Reuters that they had received police notices from as early as March telling them to turn away people from Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan.

“I’m not clear of the reason. We just can’t take them,” one hotel worker said by telephone.

The notice appears only to apply to cheaper hotels at the bottom of the price scale.

All of the five countries have been beset by terrorist attacks in the past few years, or in the case of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have been in states of war. But the inclusion of Pakistan in the list came as a surprise considering its close ties with China.