Hainan is walking back from unrestricted Internet access for foreign visitors (photo courtesy of Fanghong). Hainan is walking back from unrestricted Internet access for foreign visitors (photo courtesy of Fanghong). (Wikimedia Commons photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An announcement by the government of the Chinese island of Hainan that foreign visitors would be allowed access to international social media like Facebook disappeared from the Internet just days later.

China wants to turn the tropical island close to Vietnam into an international holiday destination comparable to Bali or Phuket, with a three-year plan from 2018 until 2020 hoping to result in 2 million visitors a year.

According to a government message posted online on June 21, areas with high concentrations of foreign visitors on the island would obtain unfiltered access to the Internet, including social media usually blocked by the central government such as Facebook and Twitter, the Central News Agency reported.

However, the announcement provoked mixed reactions from the Chinese public, with accusations of double standards. If Facebook and Twitter were fine for foreigners, why shouldn’t Chinese citizens also be allowed access, the argument went.

However, by the morning of June 23, the notice about the social media and the public’s reactions had been removed from the Hainan government website, though the general information about the three-year plan was still there, CNA reported.

Online visitors to the original notice were told the website no longer existed or had been deleted, and would be redirected to the main page after five seconds.

Hainan still plans to turn the whole island into an experimental free trade area while continuing to attract more tourists.