China threatens to retaliate against countries imposing covid restrictions on Chinese

China is threatening “countermeasures” over COVID travel restrictions announced in a number of countries. The United States has been among the states requiring arriving Chinese passengers to provide coronavirus tests. Beijing is threatening to retaliate.

Beijing has criticized recently introduced testing requirements by a number of states for passengers from China and has threatened countermeasures against the countries involved.

China is in the midst of a nationwide coronavirus outbreak following a sharp easing of tight restrictions that were in place for much of the pandemic, according to The Guardian.

Countries including the US, UK, India, Japan and several European states have announced tougher measures against travelers arriving from China amid concerns over China’s lack of infection data and fears that new options may emerge there.

“We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China have no scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable,” said Mao Ning, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “We strongly oppose attempts to manipulate COVID measures for political purposes and will take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity.”

China’s comments on the matter were the most scathing to date, while Australia and Canada this week joined a growing list of countries requiring travelers from China to take a COVID test before boarding a flight.

“It’s a purely science-based approach,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters when asked about his Chinese counterpart’s statement.

The measures are prompted by “serious public health concerns underlying them” due to “the spike in COVID-19 cases in the PRC and the lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data coming from the PRC,” Price said.

The State Department spokesman reiterated that the US is willing to share its COVID vaccines with China, which is actively promoting its own injections overseas, which international health experts say are less effective.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born also defended the travel requirements. Starting Wednesday, anyone flying from China to France will be required to present a negative virus test taken within the previous 48 hours and be randomly tested upon arrival.

“We are doing our part, my government is doing its part by protecting the French,” she told France-Info radio.

Australia said it would not be affected by the Chinese threat of retaliation, while Treasurer Jim Chalmers told national broadcaster ABC that “countries will make their own decisions about travel arrangements and how they deal with Covid more broadly.”

He said the pre-flight Covid test requirement has not become “particularly onerous” and is “in line with steps being taken in other countries.”

Asked if the requirement was internationally agreed to put pressure on China, Chalmers said: “I don’t see it that way, but certainly the global health community is very concerned about the transparency and quality of the COVID data we get from China”.

At the same time, not all countries, including representatives of the “collective West”, have joined the restrictions on passengers arriving from China. For example, New Zealand bucked the broader trend and said on Wednesday it would not require travelers from China to provide a negative COVID test.

World Health Organization (WHO) officials met with Chinese scientists on Tuesday amid concerns over the accuracy of China’s data on the spread and evolution of the outbreak. The UN agency invited scientists to provide detailed data on viral sequencing and to share data on hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations. The spokesman said the WHO was looking forward to a “detailed discussion” about the rollout of options in China and around the world.

China, which has pursued a “zero COVID” strategy for most of the pandemic that included tight restrictions aimed at eradicating the virus, eased those measures sharply in December. Chinese authorities have previously said that as of January 8, visitors will no longer need to be quarantined upon arrival in China, paving the way for overseas travel by residents of the country.