BEIJING (AFP) – China called the mounting international restrictions on travellers from its territory “unacceptable” yesterday after over a dozen countries placed fresh COVID curbs on visitors from the world’s most populous nation.
The United States (US), Canada, Japan and France are among the countries insisting all travellers from China provide negative COVID tests before arrival, as concerns grow over a surge in cases.
China’s steep rise in COVID infections comes after Beijing abruptly lifted years of hardline restrictions last month, with hospitals and crematoriums quickly over-whelmed.
But Beijing has pushed ahead with a long-awaited re-opening, last week announcing an end to mandatory quarantines on arrival in a move that prompted Chinese citizens to plan trips abroad.
“Some countries have taken entry restrictions targetting only Chinese travellers,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing.
“This lacks scientific basis and some practices are unacceptable,” she added, warning China could “take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity”.
Asked about China’s reaction, France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the new rules.
“I think we’re performing our duty in asking for tests,” Borne told franceinfo radio.
“We will continue to do it.”
The rules imposed affect all travellers coming from China – not just Chinese nationals – while Beijing continues to restrict inbound visitors and not issue visas for tourists or international students.
Countries including the US have also cited Beijing’s lack of transparency around infection data and the risk of new variants as a reason to restrict travellers.
China has only recorded 22 COVID deaths since December and has dramatically narrowed the criteria for classifying such deaths – meaning that Beijing’s own statistics about the unprecedented wave are now widely seen as not reflecting reality.
As health workers nationwide battle a surge in cases, a senior doctor at one of Shanghai’s top hospitals said 70 per cent of the megacity’s population may now have been infected with COVID-19, state media reported yesterday.
Ruijin Hospital Vice President and Shanghai’s COVID expert advisory panel member Chen Erzhen estimated that the majority of the city’s 25 million people may have been infected.
“Now the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai is very wide, and it may have reached 70 per cent of the population, which is 20 to 30 times more than (in April and May),” he told Dajiangdong Studio. Shanghai suffered a gruelling two-month lockdown from April, during which over 600,000 residents were infected and many were hauled to mass quarantine centres.
