Russians rush to China: borders opened right during the outbreak of COVID-19

Before the New Year, according to Khabarovsk travel agencies, local residents cut off their phones to find out when it would be possible to get to China. This country is now passing the peak of the incidence of coronavirus and, in spite of everything, opened its borders to everyone from January 8, 2023.

Three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, everything could happen again. Who’s guilty?

Neighbors of the Middle Kingdom, fearing an influx of sick Chinese, hastily pass laws according to which entry into their territory must be either a test or a certificate of vaccination. This decision has already been announced by the authorities of Thailand. But what about Russia?

Since January 8, passenger traffic has been opened between the Russian Primorye and the Chinese counties of Suifenhe and Hunchun.

Flights to China from Khabarovsk are also operated, however, only for Chinese citizens who were in Russia. By the spring they promise to restore the tourist flow.

But already now for work, study, family reunification and driving transportation – welcome to China.

Thailand was the first to sound the alarm.

“It could be about checking vaccination certificates by airlines on Sunday before the departure of flights that will arrive in Thailand on Monday, January 9,” according to the Bangkok Post.

From now on, tourists must provide evidence at the airline counter that they have been vaccinated with two two-component vaccines or one single-component vaccine. Vaccinations must be made at least 14 days before the intended visit to Thailand.

The decision, as it were, is somewhat belated, since everyone already knows that the vaccinated are perfectly ill with the coronavirus and transmit it to others. And then it all depends on the immune system. The same Chinese were vaccinated four times. So what? And nothing!

By the way, how many Russian tourists returning home after the New Year holidays may encounter Chinese arriving at Bangkok airport? According to statistics, the Russians took first place among foreigners from all over the world who celebrated the New Year in Thailand.

By the way, how many patients are now in China itself? But nobody knows this.

The last unclassified data about this was published at the end of December – 37 million Chinese fell ill every day. Since then, the statistics have been hiding here. “About 70% of the population of Shanghai may be infected,” the vice president of Ruijin Hospital said on January 7, 2023. State media quoted the chief epidemiologist as suggesting that the infection rate in Beijing is likely to be over 80%. The population of the Chinese capital is nearly 22 million people. Here also consider. Even according to the most rosy estimates, if no more than 1-2% of the sick die, as happened everywhere, then hundreds of thousands of deaths are expected in Beijing alone.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it would eventually, of course, release an estimate of the country’s excess deaths, which should show how many more people have died here compared to the annual average. But when will this happen? And how reliable is the information?

The latest estimate from London-based Airfinity is that around 9,000 people die every day from the coronavirus in China. It is predicted that this number may peak at the end of January, amounting to approximately 25,000 deaths per day, and another, higher death rate increase will occur in early March. The Economist predicts that at least 1.5 million Chinese will die from the virus in the coming months.

According to some reports, the queue for cremation in megacities is scheduled until mid-January. For a separate and expensive fee, according to insider leaks, they can be put in a queue that goes “out of turn”.

In this case, the payment for the speed of burial is, if translated into Russian currency, several hundred thousand rubles.

Since this amount is called, it means that there are those who are ready to pay it? It turns out that not the poorest and deprived of medical care are dying?

Footage is published on the network where people burn their deceased loved ones right in the yards. Of course, I would like to believe that these are the same fakes as in the winter of 2020, when terrible footage from China was distributed around the world, where the sick fell dead right on the streets.

China is a country of contrasts. At first, everyone was supposed to not get sick. Now everything is sick. Previously, those who were under suspicion were placed in covid concentration camps. Now they are allowed to travel the world.

Moreover, the authorities of not a single country, including the WHO, pulled China up and were not indignant at what they were doing, rushing from one extreme to another.

Okay, you get sick and get sick – everyone should be sick by mid-February, then fly wherever you want. Can’t you wait?

However, optimists argue that adequate countries individually will still refuse entry to the Chinese. But here such a thing – it is enough even for one “zero patient” to sneak through the border cordon with some modified strain and … it’s great again.

It remains to be hoped, of course, that the Chinese are infected with long-studied types of Covid-19, which are not dangerous for the rest of humanity, which has seriously pumped up its immunity in the fight against the “Chinese infection”.

By the way, restrictive measures in China have ceased to work not only for exit, but also for entry. Starting Sunday, arrivals in China will no longer need to undergo mandatory on-site PCR testing and quarantine. It is enough just to take a PCR test for COVID-19 48 hours before the flight to China, and then put down the result in the health declaration.

This also applies to Russians living in border areas. For a long time, in some places there has been a simplified border crossing between our countries, including crossing it by self-propelled. For example, shuttles. Of course, for the last three years, all these modes of transportation have not worked, but the first steps towards the restoration of friendly and business ties have already appeared. According to local media, since the end of December in Khabarovsk there has been a stir around obtaining Chinese visas.

“First of all, driver’s visas are in demand, which are needed for transportation. Service and business visas are also in demand,” said Valentina Aseeva, a member of the Far Eastern Regional Tourism Association.

Many Primorye residents began to cut off phones in advance in travel agencies, wondering when it would be possible to visit the Celestial Empire for the purpose of recreation.

Until the New Year, the Chinese Consulate in Khabarovsk accepted visa applications twice a week – about 60-70 passports per day. It was necessary to sign up for this procedure on a special website. There were so many applicants that the electronic queue just… hung.

The Russian side insists that it is still impossible to enter China for the purpose of tourism. However, the Chancellery of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC informs that this issue will be resolved in the near future, probably at the same time the agreement on a visa-free regime for some categories of travelers will be renewed. By and large, there would be a desire to get into this country, but there are loopholes.

Yes, apparently, our people do not care at all, and their previous mistakes do not teach them anything.