Japan joined India on Tuesday in imposing restrictions on Chinese visitors as Beijing eased its standards for travellers.
Japan will tighten border controls for COVID-19 by requiring testing for all visitors from China from Friday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has announced, even as Beijing announced it would do so. scrap compulsory quarantine for arrivals abroad.
The developments come days after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was very concerned about rising Serious case reports across China after the country largely abandoned its “zero-COVID” policy.
Beijing, while acknowledging a rise in cases, has played down the spread of the virus after spending the better part of three years locking down entire neighbors and towns for a handful of infections.
On Tuesday, it said it would reduce its coronavirus threat levels on January 8 and start making it easier for mainland residents to travel abroad. Outbound travel by Chinese tourists, for years a mainstay of the global tourism industry, had fallen to almost zero since 2020. In addition, passengers arriving from overseas will no longer have to self-quarantine. , although a negative test result within 48 hours of departure and arrival flight masks are still required.
China has “refined its COVID response in light of the evolving situation” while working with the global community, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
Yet even as Beijing has given the go-ahead for the country to open up, other governments – worried about surging cases in China – are raising barriers to entry for Chinese visitors.
In Japan, the quantitative antigen test that is already performed on entrants suspected of having COVID-19 will be mandatory for all people arriving from mainland China. Those who test positive will be quarantined for seven days in designated facilities and their samples will be used for genome analysis.
The measure begins on Friday, just as Japan enters the New Year holiday marked by parties and travel, when infections are expected to rise.
India too last week mandated a COVID-19 test for travelers from China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand, while ordering quarantine for those showing symptoms or testing positive. India has also started randomly testing 2% of international passengers arriving at airports.
Kishida said China’s lack of information sharing and transparency on infections made it difficult to assess and determine safety measures. There are huge gaps between information from central and local authorities, and between government and private organisations, he said.
“There are growing concerns in Japan,” Kishida said. “We have decided to take a temporary special measure to respond to the situation.”
But Wang seemed to offer a subtle critique of the border measures adopted by Japan and India. “China believes that pandemic measures should be science-based and appropriate and should not affect normal personnel exchanges,” he said.
Japan’s new measure is aimed at “preventing a rapid increase in infections in this country” and is not meant to stop the global movement of people, Kishida said. Japan will act flexibly, while monitoring development in China, he added, including stopping the planned increase in flights between Japan and China “just to be sure”.
Direct flights between the two countries will for the time being be limited to four major Japanese airports, government officials said.
“The measure will not affect Japan’s policy to continue our ongoing transition to a ‘with-COVID’ lifestyle carefully and regularly while monitoring infections at home,” Kishida said.
Japan stopped requiring COVID-19 tests Earlier this year for attendees who had at least three snaps – part of the country’s cautious easing of measures after virtually closing its borders to foreign tourists for around two years.
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