China responds apathetically to US rule on COVID testing

Some Chinese have been disappointed by the new requirement of the Biden administration’s tests on travelers from his country.

others irradiated contempt, calling it a last-ditch Western effort to contain China’s rise.

But many were simply indifferent.

For many Chinese, the US rule that they must have negative COVID-19 test results to visit the country is a given ring road.

China is grappling with major epidemics that have sickened countless people and overwhelmed hospitals and funeral homes.

Many are focused on trying to keep their jobs and homes as the economy falters.

And for many who have thought about traveling, an additional COVID test isn’t a big inconvenience.

For many tens of millions of citizens, these tests were until recently a almost daily routine imposed by the authorities.

And Chinese tourists know they are welcome in many places in Asia and other continents.

“It’s just a COVID test before the trip,” says Li Kuan, 33, a software engineer at a technology company in the southern China city of Guangzhou.

“We’ve been doing various tests of this kind for three years.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rule, announced Wednesday, will require negative tests to anyoneregardless of nationality or vaccination status, who wishes to board a US-bound flight to China.

It will apply to travelers from Hong Kong and Macau, as well as anyone from China transiting or entering the United States through a third country.

The rule will take effect on Jan. 5, three days before China plans to lift strict quarantine requirements that have applied to incoming travelers for nearly three years.

People from all over the world are excited about the possible boom in business and tourism that the increase in Chinese tourists would bring.

But some also worry about how cases in the country have skyrocketed since early December when China abruptly rescinded its “no quarantinefollowing massive protests over the closures that threatened the ruling Communist Party.

US authorities fear the coronavirus could spread rapidly in China, allowing new variants to be developed and spread around the world.

The CDC said it is requiring a negative COVID test for travelers from China to slow the spread of the virus in the United States.

According to the agency, as new variants of the virus emerge around the world, the “reduction” of testing and case reports in China and the “minimal exchange”. of epidemiological data could delay their identification.

Italy, South Korea and Japan recently imposed similar travel restrictions, e India now requires negative COVID test results and random checks at airports for passengers from China including Hong Kong as well as dand Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

In China on Thursday, the Communist Party’s top propaganda organs, often quick to criticize countries that impose restrictions on Chinese travellers, appeared to downplay US reports.

The CDC’s rule has barely been mentioned on many of the party’s major platforms.

Instead, some sites highlighted how China’s easing has been well received in other countries.

“Chinese new measures ‘boost global economic hope,'” read the headline of an article in the Global timesthe newspaper of the Communist Party.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said Chinese official media may be wary of reporting too much on the US restriction for fear that it would draw attention to China’s domestic hotbeds and stoke public anger.

“If there’s too much talk about it, mistakes are likely to be made,” he said.

For Beijing, it might be difficult to argue that the US shouldn’t impose a testing requirement, when China itself continues to plan to keep one, even after easing the rules.

The government will require arriving travelers to show a negative polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test result within 48 hours of departure.

During a routine press conference in Beijing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin did not directly address the Biden administration’s move.

He repeated talking points Beijing used last week as some countries began imposing limits on Chinese travellers, saying such anti-pandemic measures must be “scientific and appropriate.”

But this time he made a biting reference to the issue of discrimination, saying that such measures must also “treat citizens of all countries equally”.

Some Chinese citizens have shrugged off the US testing requirement, calling it inconvenient minor for a population that has become accustomed to near-constant PCR testing throughout the pandemic.

China’s COVID testing requirements for international travelers have been “much more complicated” than the United States now requires for the country’s travelers, said Wang Xiaofei, 29, who works at a tech company in the southern megacity of Shenyang.

c.2022 The New York Times Society