Travel curbs rack up as COVID-hit China readies reopening
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[January 06, 2023]
By Brenda Goh and Martin Quin Pollard
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) -More countries around the world are
demanding that visitors from China take COVID tests, days before it
drops border controls and ushers in an eagerly awaited return to travel
for a population that has been largely stuck at home for three years.
From Sunday, China will end the requirement for inbound travellers to
quarantine, the latest dismantling of its "zero-COVID" regime that began
last month following historic protests against a suffocating series of
mass lockdowns.
But the abrupt changes have exposed many of China's 1.4 billion
population to the virus for the first time, triggering an infection wave
that is overwhelming some hospitals, emptying pharmacy shelves of
medication and causing international alarm.
Greece, Germany and Sweden on Thursday joined more than a dozen
countries to demand COVID tests from Chinese travellers, as the World
Health Organisation said China's official virus data was under-reporting
the true extent of its outbreak.
Chinese officials and state media have struck a defiant tone, defending
the handling of the outbreak, playing down the severity of the surge and
denouncing foreign travel requirements for its residents.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning warned on Friday of possible
reciprocal measures after the European Union recommended pre-departure
testing for Chinese passengers.
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"The EU should listen more to ... rational voices and treat China's
epidemic prevention and control objectively and fairly," Mao told a
regular media briefing in Beijing.
The Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid published by the official
People's Daily, said in an editorial that some Western media and
politicians "would never be satisfied" no matter what steps China takes.
The global aviation industry, battered by years of pandemic curbs, has
also been critical of the decisions to impose testing on travellers from
China. China will still require pre-departure testing for inbound
travellers after Jan. 8.
HOSPITALS PACKED
Some Chinese citizens think the reopening has been too hasty.
"They should have taken a series of actions before opening up ... and at
the very least ensure that the pharmacies were well stocked," a
70-year-old man who gave his surname as Zhao told Reuters in Shanghai.
China reported five new COVID deaths in the mainland for Thursday,
bringing its official virus death toll to 5,264, one of the lowest in
the world.
But that appeared to be at odds with the reality on the ground where
funeral parlours are overwhelmed and hospitals are packed with elderly
patients on respirators. In Shanghai, more than 200 taxi drivers are
driving ambulances to meet demand for emergency services, the Shanghai
Morning Post reported.
International health experts believe Beijing's narrow definition of
COVID deaths does not reflect a true toll that could rise to more than a
million fatalities this year.
Investors are optimistic that China's reopening can eventually
reinvigorate a $17-trillion economy suffering its lowest growth in
nearly half a century.
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![](../images/010623PIX/news_s51.jpg)
A worker in a protective suit walks near
a plane of Air China airlines at Beijing Capital International
Airport as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in
Beijing, China January 6, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Those hopes, alongside policy measures to help revive its troubled
property sector, lifted China's yuan on Friday.
Meanwhile, both China's blue-chip CSI300 Index and the Shanghai
Composite Index have gained more than 2% in the first trading week
of the year.
"While the re-opening is likely to be a bumpy affair amid surging
COVID-19 cases and increasingly stretched health systems, our
economists expect growth momentum across Asia to gather steam, led
by China," Herald van der Linde, HSBC's head of equity strategy,
Asia Pacific, said in a note.
SOUTHEAST ASIA OPEN
With the big Lunar New Year holidays late this month, the mainland
is also set to open the border with its special administrative
region of Hong Kong on Sunday, for the first time in three years.
Ferry services between the city and the gambling hub of Macau will
resume on the same day.
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways said on Thursday it would more
than double flights to mainland China. Flights to and from China
remain at a tiny fraction of pre-COVID levels.
The WHO has warned that the holiday, which starts on Jan. 21 and
usually brings the biggest human migration on the planet as people
head home from cities to visit families in small towns and villages,
could spark another infection wave in the absence of higher
vaccination rates and other precautions.
Authorities expect 2.1 billion passenger trips, by road, rail, water
and air, over the holiday, double last year's 1.05 billion journeys
during the same period.
The transport ministry has urged people to be cautious to minimise
the risk of infection for elderly relatives, pregnant women and
infants.
One region poised to be a major beneficiary of China's opening is
Southeast Asia, where countries have not demanded that Chinese
visitors take COVID tests.
Except for airline wastewater testing by Malaysia and Thailand for
the virus, the region's 11 nations will treat Chinese travellers
like any others.
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As many as 76% of Chinese travel agencies ranked Southeast Asia as
the top destination when outbound travel resumed, according to a
recent survey by trade show ITB China.
Many people in China have taken to social media to announce their
travel plans but some remain wary.
"You want to see the world, but the world might not want to see
you," wrote one WeChat user from Tianjin city.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Bernard Orr, Eduardo Baptista,
Martin Pollard and Liz Lee in Beijing, Farah Master in Hong Kong,
and Xinghui Kok in Singapore; Writing by John Geddie and Greg Torode;
Editing by Robert Birsel and Andrew Heavens)
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