Advertisement
Global Impact: China takes down its Covid-19 barriers, Xi Jinping hails a ‘light of hope’
- Global Impact is a fortnightly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world
- In this edition, we look at China officially scraping centralised quarantine and Covid-19 tests on arrival from Sunday
Reading Time:7 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
9
Goodbye centralised quarantine. The date when you can travel to China with less hassle has finally arrived. After three years of a zero-Covid mandate that meant China’s borders were effectively closed, foreigners arriving in the country from Sunday can now be less worried about the draconian virus control measures they have to go through.
Advertisement
Authorities will also start issuing tourist and business visas to allow Chinese nationals to travel to Hong Kong as part of a gradual resumption of land border checkpoints with the city, as well its other special administrative region, Macau.
In his New Year message, President Xi Jinping said there is now a “light of hope” in the fight against the coronavirus and that China will not close its doors.
The business community has long demanded that China lift its virus control measures, and now travellers only need to present a negative PCR test result from the last 48 hours.
03:47
First travellers arrive and depart from Beijing as China reopens international borders
First travellers arrive and depart from Beijing as China reopens international borders
They also do not need to enter centralised quarantine. Those measures have been blamed for hampering business sentiment and for damaging foreign investor confidence in China. Removing the measures is a sign that China has “turned the corner”, according to one foreign business chamber.
Advertisement
Traders from the United States to Africa largely welcomed the resumption of travel to China, even though they are still cautious about their business plans.
Advertisement