BEIJING (Reuters) Jan,10 – The Chinese government on Wednesday suspended short-term visas for South Korea and Japan after it said it would retaliate against countries that demanded that Chinese travelers test negative for the novel coronavirus.
China waived mandatory quarantine on arrival and allowed travel across the border with Hong Kong to resume from Sunday, set to be demolished in early December after historic protests against the curbs suddenly began. We have lifted the last major restrictions under our “Zero COVID” regime.
China has imposed similar testing requirements on all arrivals, but foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday that the entry restrictions for Chinese travelers were “discriminatory” and China said it would take “mutual measures”.
As a first retaliation, the Chinese embassy in South Korea suspended the issuance of short-term visas to South Korean tourists. The embassy said on its official WeChat account that it would adjust its policies on the condition that South Korea lifts its “discriminatory immigration restrictions” against China. The Chinese embassy in Japan later announced a similar move, saying the embassy and its consulates had stopped issuing visas from Tuesday. The embassy’s statement did not specify when it would reopen.
The move comes on the heels of Japan tightening its COVID-19 rules for travelers coming directly from China, with a negative PCR test result performed within 72 hours before departure and a test on arrival in Japan. required to be negative.
Due to the virus outbreak, China has stopped releasing daily infection numbers. Fewer than five deaths per day have been reported since the policy was rescinded, but the World Health Organization has disputed the figures, which are out of line with undertakers reporting increased demand. Some governments have expressed concerns about the transparency of data in Beijing as international experts predict at least 1 million people will die in China this year. Washington has also expressed concern about potential future mutations of the virus.
China has dismissed politically motivated criticism of the data as attempting to smear its “success” in dealing with the pandemic, saying future mutations will be more contagious but less harmful.
But as the epidemic spreads across vast remote areas of China, many people, including the elderly victims, are reluctant to get tested.
An article in the Health Times, run by the People’s Daily, the organ of the ruling Communist Party, quoted several officials as saying infections were declining in the capital Beijing and several Chinese provinces. . Officials in the southern tech powerhouse Shenzhen said Tuesday that the city, too, has passed its heyday.
In eastern Jiangsu, the virus peaked on December 22, while in neighboring Zhejiang, “the first wave of infections has passed smoothly,” officials said.
Financial markets saw the recent border controls as a mere inconvenience as the yuan reached his five-month high.
Although the number of daily flights to and from China is one-tenth of pre-coronavirus levels, businesses across Asia, from South Korean and Japanese shopkeepers to Thai tour bus operators and K-pop groups, are flying to and from China. We welcome the prospect of an increase in the number of tourists. In another sign of port opening, Beijing’s Daxing International Airport, along with Beijing Capital International Airport, will resume international flights from January 17 for the first time in nearly three years.
Before COVID, Chinese buyers spent $250 billion annually abroad.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bora said on Monday that the company is in talks with Chinese authorities about the price of Paxlovid, but has not licensed a generic version in China.
