Wrapup 1: China defends its retaliation against South Korea, Japan COVID curbs

Amorepacific

11/01/2023 03:45

By Bernard Orr and Brenda Goh
       BEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Chinese state media defended
on Wednesday the retaliatory measures against South Korea and
Japan over their COVID-19 travel curbs as "reasonable", while
Chinese tourists decried Seoul's "insulting" treatment on social
media.
    China re-opened its borders on Sunday after three years of
isolation under the world's strictest regime of COVID
restrictions, which Beijing abruptly began dismantling in early
December after historic protests.
    With the virus spreading unchecked among China's 1.4 billion
people after the policy U-turn, some foreign governments have
raised concerns about the scale and impact of the outbreak, with
the World Health Organization saying deaths are underreported.
    In a first, China's health authorities - which have been
reporting five or fewer deaths a day over the past month,
numbers that are inconsistent with the long queues seen at
funeral homes - did not report COVID fatalities data on Tuesday.
    China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the
country's National Health Commission did not immediately respond
to requests for comment.
    South Korea, Japan, the United States and more than a dozen
other countries imposed at the start of the year requirements
for pre-departure negative test results from visitors from
China.
    In response, the Chinese embassies in Seoul and Tokyo said
on Tuesday they had suspended issuing short-term visas for
travellers to China, with the foreign ministry slamming the
testing requirements as "discriminatory."
    China requires negative test results from visitors from all
countries.
    State-run nationalist tabloid Global Times defended
Beijing's retaliation as a "direct and reasonable response to
protect its own legitimate interests, particularly after some
countries are continuing hyping up China's epidemic situation by
putting travel restrictions for political manipulation."
    South Korean foreign minister Park Jin has said the
country's decision was based on scientific evidence. Japan
lodged a protest to China over its suspending the issuance of
visas for Japanese citizens.
    'INSULTING'
    Chinese social media anger mainly targeted South Korea,
whose border measures are the strictest among the countries that
announced new rules. 
    Travellers from China must get another test upon arrival,
with those who are positive sent to a designated quarantine
facility for seven days at their own cost. Flights can only land
at Incheon International Airport. 
    Videos circulating online showed special lanes coordinated
by soldiers in uniform for arrivals from China at the airport,
with travellers given yellow lanyards with QR codes for 
processing test results.
    One user of China's Twitter-like Weibo said singling out
Chinese travellers was "insulting" and akin to "people treated
as criminals and paraded on the streets."
    Global Times reserved a separate article for South Korea,
saying the measures made Chinese people suspicious that Seoul
was putting up a "political show."
    "Seoul should not be surprised by China's countermeasures,"
it said in the article, which also criticised "very poor"
quarantine conditions.
    The tensions hurt share prices of South Korean companies
with heavy exposure to China, including cosmetics makers LG H&H
 051900.KS  and Amorepacific  090430.KS .
    Annual spending by Chinese tourists abroad reached $250
billion before the pandemic, with South Korea and Japan among
the top shopping destinations.
    China has repeatedly dismissed criticism of its strict COVID
restrictions since early 2020, as well as of their sudden
dismantling, which has overwhelmed hospitals and crematoria
across the country and left pharmacies understocked.
    Although international health experts have predicted at
least one million COVID-related deaths this year, China has
reported just over 5,000 since the pandemic began, a fraction of
what much less populous countries have reported as they
reopened.
    China says it has been transparent with its data.
    State media said the COVID wave was already past its peak in
the provinces of Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan
and Hainan, as well as in the large cities of Beijing and
Chongqing - home to more than 500 million people combined.
 (Additional reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Writing by Marius
Zaharia. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
 ((marius.zaharia@thomsonreuters.com; +852 2843 6358;))