China has intensified a crackdown so-called zero-dollar tours to Korea, where big tour groups are herded through the country for little money but heavily pushed into shopping.

The move comes after Lotte Group on Wednesday signed a deal with the government here to hand over a site for the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery from the U.S.

According to tourism industry sources in Beijing, the China National Tourism Administration told the top 20 Chinese travel agencies to stop offering group tours to Korea.

Meanwhile, China's biggest state-run travel agency, CTS, has reportedly scrapped visits to Lotte duty-free shops, a prime destination for the shopping trips, and Lotte Hotel from its package tours. Chinese tourists account for more than 70 percent of revenues in Lotte duty-free shops.

Beijing says the crackdown has nothing to do with the deployment of the THAAD battery, whose radar China fears will be used to spy on its military activities, but the timing is striking. Some 30 to 40 percent of the 8 million Chinese tourists who visited Korea last year came through state-run travel agencies.

