China’s ruling Communist Party (CCP) has recently been going back and forth about immigration restrictions due to COVID-19.
A day after announcing the lifting of certain entry requirements, the administration said it had not relaxed its controls. Experts believe the attempt to ease restrictions was just a show off ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s next congress.
The Chinese government’s General Administration of Customs issued a new “exit-entry health declaration card” on August 31 on the official account of China’s social media Wechat on August 25, easing the requirement to report COVID-19 PCR results. Then I posted. , past infection status, vaccination status of travelers entering and leaving Japan.
All major mainland Chinese media outlets, including the Daily Economic News, reported on this policy change as “an important change in declaring testing information for COVID-19 entry and exit.”
However, on August 26, the General Administration of Customs issued a statement saying that China would still require international passengers to return negative COVID-19 PCR test results before boarding flights to China and quarantine upon arrival. said it was demanding.
It said the revision of the “Health Declaration Card” was not to ease restrictions on China’s COVID-19 prevention and control, but to improve the efficiency of the declaration system. Stated.
Current regulations require airline passengers to submit two negative PCR test results within 48 hours of departure. He must also report his test results and other COVID-related information to the Chinese Embassy to obtain a digital health code for boarding.
In a statement, the General Administration of Customs said it will adhere to the administration’s “no new coronavirus” policy and “prevent the entry of the virus from other countries. While preventing the outbreak from recurring domestically.”
Regarding the China Customs statement, US-based current affairs commentator Wang He told The Epoch Times on Aug. 26 that the devil is always in the details. On the surface, the CCP says it will rescind certain requirements, but questions remain about how the new changes will be implemented.
Wang said the CCP’s approach to epidemic prevention is very different from that of the international community.
“After more than two years of lockdown, there have been difficulties in exchanges between China and other countries, which has adversely affected the economy, diplomacy and politics,” he said of the CCP’s travel and other restrictions.
This time, customs has announced that some requirements will be lifted. “maybe it [the CCP] We will change that image on the eve of the 20th Party Congress to show off our achievements in epidemic prevention and control,” he said.
“At home, however, the administration continues to implement strict ‘zero COVID’ measures, forcing people to take PCR tests. She also encouraged her Chinese women’s volleyball team to wear masks when competing in international competitions,” he said. “This is no longer about people’s well-being and humanity, it has become a rigorous political agenda.”
Lin Cenxin and Yi Ru contributed to the report.
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Alex Wu is a US-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on Chinese society, Chinese culture, human rights and international relations.