The threat comes three years after Beijing allowed international flights from Wuhan during the first months of the COVID outbreak.
On January 11, 2022, after authorities ordered testing of all 14 million inhabitants, staff wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) performed tests at a temporary Covid-19 testing facility in Tianjin, northern China. Is working. / Getty Images
Ben Wilson • Jan 4, 2023 at 5:15pm
The Chinese government on Tuesday threatened to impose “countermeasures” after the United States required travelers from China to test negative for the coronavirus before entering the country.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said: “We believe that the entry restrictions targeted at China by some countries have no scientific basis, and that some excessive practices are even more unacceptable. there is,” he said. Mao added that the test requirements are “for political purposes” and that the CCP will respond “based on the principle of reciprocity.”
The UK and most of the European Union countries have joined the US in mandating negative COVID tests for travelers from China. The country is facing an outbreak of cases after easing its “zero COVID” policy in December following massive anti-government protests.
It is unclear what “countermeasures” Beijing could enact. US travelers to China are already “subject to a minimum 10-day quarantine” at their own expense and “may need to download location tracking software onto their phones to access public places.” No “space and business,” said the US Embassy in China.
China’s threat comes three years after allowing international flights from the virus’s origin city, Wuhan, in the first months of the coronavirus outbreak, despite the communist state’s crackdown on domestic travel. Republican lawmakers say China’s efforts to withhold information about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic may have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.
The United States will mandate testing from January 5th. World Health Organization official Mike Ryan said China is underestimating the number of COVID cases.
“We believe the current figures coming out of China underestimate the true impact of the disease in terms of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and especially deaths,” Ryan said Wednesday.
A doctor in Shanghai, China’s most populous city, said Tuesday that 70% of the city’s population may be infected.
