Foreign visa applicants to China, take heart: it turns out you’re not crazy after all.

For weeks, foreigners who travel to China regularly have been reporting a tougher time getting new visas - it’s been virtually impossible, for example, to get multiple-entry tourist or business visas, which used to be quite common. Business groups have complained loudly. News articles have been written (including some by the WSJ here and here). But for weeks China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has either denied making a policy change, or dodged the question, saying only that whatever it was doing, it was in accordance with international practice.

On Tuesday, the ministry finally acknowledged what everyone has surmised all along: that the government has tightened its visa approval procedures ahead of the Olympics. “In the approval process, we are more strict and more serious. The purpose is to make sure that we have a safe environment,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular press briefing. “I believe this policy will be maintained for a period of time.”

Qin defended China’s right to adjust its visa policy, and noted that its practices are still more convenient than those of “some other countries” (read, ahem, the U.S., among others), since China does not require fingerprints or optical scans. He indicated that stricter visa rules– apparently designed to make it harder for trouble makers and dangerous types to enter China before or during the August Games– are part of a range of measures Beijing is taking to beef up safety in the coming months.

Cynics might see some of the tougher safety precautions as a drag, but it turns out they’re actually designed to make you smile. The government will take measures “to ensure the Beijing Olympics can be held in a safe environment and proceed smoothly,” Qin said, “and that all the foreign friends who come to China can feel safer and happier.”