China on Tuesday said it has stopped issuing short-term visas for Japanese and South Koreans, in its first retaliatory measure against countries that introduced COVID-19-related restrictions on travelers from China. More than a dozen countries, including Taiwan, introduced such curbs after China last month lifted its “zero COVID-19” policy, and stopped reporting daily case totals for the disease amid a nationwide surge triggered by the abrupt change in disease prevention policy. On Sunday last week, it also opened its border for outbound travelers
Japan and South Korea require arrivals from China, regardless of nationality, to take pre-departure and on-arrival COVID-19 tests. The EU on Wednesday last week “strongly encouraged” its 27 members to implement similar testing requirements, sequence the DNA of samples of SARS-CoV-2 taken from arrivals from China and test wastewater from planes for the virus. Health officials in countries that have introduced testing requirements said they aim to obtain data on China’s COVID-19 situation and monitor potential new variants of the virus, as China does not share such information with the international community. The WHO has repeatedly urged Beijing to share reliable information on its cases, hospitalizations, deaths and real-time genomic sequencing, saying China is still “heavily underreporting” deaths from the disease.
Although reports said that hospitals in China are being overwhelmed, a tally on the Web site of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday showed that only 37 virus-related deaths had been recorded since the policy change on Dec. 8 last year. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) on Tuesday said Japan and South Korea imposed entry restrictions “in disregard of science, facts and their actual epidemic situation,” calling the rules “discriminatory” against his country. “China firmly rejects this and will take reciprocal measures,” he said. Wang also said that “China’s COVID response policies are science-based, effective and consistent with China’s national realities,” which are guided “by a people-first and life-first philosophy.” China’s measures can “stand the test of history,” he said, urging other states to “make sure their COVID response measures are fact-based, science-based and proportionate.” The pandemic “should not be used as a pretext for political manipulation,” he said.
Despite China claiming that its COVID-19 response is “science-based,” while the measures imposed by other countries are “politically motivated,” its disease prevention policies since the pandemic began in early 2020 suggest that they were guided by political considerations. The international community distrusts China’s official reporting on its COVID-19 situation, and its latest actions do little to change that.
In January 2020, China misled the WHO into believing there is no human-to-human transmission of the then-newly found virus in Wuhan, even though it was to impose a lockdown on the city a week later. It also clamped down on whistle-blowers and hindered an international probe into the origin of COVID-19.
Over the past three years, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has taken pride in the strict enforcement of pandemic policies, for the most part including “zero COVID-19” and its digital surveillance, lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines. Beijing has claimed that its success in suppressing the virus was due to the superiority of “Chinese efficiency,” even as other countries began “living with the virus” after the Omicron variant proved to be hard to contain, but caused less severe illness than previous variants.
Beijing’s policy change left people unprepared for the forthcoming wave of infections. Driven by political calculations, China rejects international vaccines that offer more protection against the virus than its domestic ones, as well as antivirals such as Paxlovid, putting its people at greater risk, especially the elderly who need more protection during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.
With escalating US-China competition and mutual distrust, the trend of supply chain “friend shoring” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fragmentation of the world into rival geopolitical blocs, many analysts and policymakers worry the world is retreating into a new cold war — a world of trade bifurcation, protectionism and deglobalization. The world is in a new cold war, said Robin Niblett, former director of the London-based think tank Chatham House. Niblett said he sees the US and China slowly reaching a modus vivendi, but it might take time. The two great powers appear to be “reversing carefully
As China steps up a campaign to diplomatically isolate and squeeze Taiwan, it has become more imperative than ever that Taipei play a greater role internationally with the support of the democratic world. To help safeguard its autonomous status, Taiwan needs to go beyond bolstering its defenses with weapons like anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. With the help of its international backers, it must also expand its diplomatic footprint globally. But are Taiwan’s foreign friends willing to translate their rhetoric into action by helping Taipei carve out more international space for itself? Beating back China’s effort to turn Taiwan into an international pariah
Typhoon Krathon made landfall in southwestern Taiwan last week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding, cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and water supply to more than 400,000 homes, and leading to more than 600 injuries and four deaths. Due to the typhoon, schools and offices across the nation were ordered to close for two to four days, stirring up familiar controversies over whether local governments’ decisions to call typhoon days were appropriate. The typhoon’s center made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at noon on Thursday, but it weakened into a tropical depression early on Friday, and its structure
Since the end of the Cold War, the US-China espionage battle has arguably become the largest on Earth. Spying on China is vital for the US, as China’s growing military and technological capabilities pose direct challenges to its interests, especially in defending Taiwan and maintaining security in the Indo-Pacific. Intelligence gathering helps the US counter Chinese aggression, stay ahead of threats and safeguard not only its own security, but also the stability of global trade routes. Unchecked Chinese expansion could destabilize the region and have far-reaching global consequences. In recent years, spying on China has become increasingly difficult for the US
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