The reasons are many. Finally, though open discussion of this question is taboo, the authorities are being oddly secretive about how well Chinese-made vaccines work. Strict quarantine requirements may therefore persist for much, if not all, of 2022. This means that all Hong Kong residentsexcept for those coming from mainland China, Macau, Taiwan, or New Zealandwill have to spend at least 14 days in quarantine upon arrival regardless of vaccination status. Updated Last month, online magazine ChinaFile said among 121 China-connected scholars, journalists, former diplomats and civil society workers it surveyed, only 44% said they planned to travel to China once coronavirus restrictions are lifted; 40% said they probably or definitely would not visit, while the rest were unsure. Beijing, where top leaders live, is off limits. The record breaking rains, and similar flooding incidents happening in other parts of the country, have alarmed scientists and officials raising questions as to whether China is prepared to deal with more extreme weather as the climate crisis deepens. More than a year and a half after COVID-19 concerns prompted the U.S. to close its borders to international travelers from countries including Brazil, China, India, South Africa, the U.K. and much . This spring several embassies debated whether China should become a hardship posting reserved for diplomats without dependents. China's borders will likely remain shut for months, but some may be wary of visiting even after they reopen By Nectar Gan and Jessie Yeung, CNN Updated 2:39 AM EDT, Wed July 21, 2021 Link. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. will accept travelers who have been fully vaccinated with any of the vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, not just those in use in the U.S. That means that the AstraZeneca vaccine, widely used in Canada, will be accepted. But with the borders yet to fully reopen, it remains to be seen how much of the surging ultra-nationalism online will affect everyday actions and encounters. Hong Kong doesnt have any real power to decide upon, he added. Shares in Evergrande Group cratered a combined 25% on Monday and Tuesday in Hong Kong, wiping out some $5 billion in market value and sending the stock to its worst level in more than four years. Why you can trust SCMP . The fired Google engineer who thought its A.I. The deep freeze on international tourism due to Covid restrictions has been tough on most Asian economies, but for China, borders closed to tourists is a net positive, according to Bloomberg Economics research. Updated: 12:08pm, 24 Jul, 2021. and relaxing . In June Spains consulate-general in Shanghai protested after a newly arrived Spanish citizen was made to sign documents that she could not read and undergo days of tests and MRI scans in a clinic. When China is reopening its border in 2021 for foreigners? In the face of intense criticism, the government has repeatedly defended its course of action. September 26 - China to reopen border regions to foreign visitors The Chinese government issued draft regulations on Monday, September 19, aiming for increasing tourism along its borders and making it simpler for some foreigners to enter China. Data from travel and analytics firm Cirium showed airlines are increasing flights between the United Kingdom and the U.S. by 21% this month over last month. List of countries for which the borders with Estonia are partially or completely open: After being closed for three years, China will reopen its borders on January 8, 2023, and will eliminate the mandatory quarantine requirement for entry into the country, according to reports from the South China Morning Post. Most people in China would happily stay in this parallel universe for another five years. This Supreme Court Case Could Redefine Crime, YellowstoneBackers Wanted to Cash OutThen the Streaming Bubble Burst, How Countries Leading on Early Years of Child Care Get It Right, Female Execs Are Exhausted, Frustrated and Heading for the Exits, More Iranian Schoolgirls Sickened in Suspected Poisoning Wave, No Major Offer Expected on Childcare in UK Budget, Oil Investors Get $128 Billion Handout as Doubts Grow About Fossil Fuels, Climate Change Is Launching a MutantSeed Space Race, This Former Factory Is Now New Taipeis Edgiest Project, What Do You Want to See in a Covid Memorial? White House has confirmed the reopening date for international tourism, current travel curbs will be lifted on November 8. Measures imposed against outbreaks in places like the eastern Fujian province or southern Guangzhou city have contained the virus, even as Delta has stymied virus response systems in other countries with zero tolerance for infections, like Vietnam and Australia. As of Jan 8, 2023, travelers from the United States and Canada are no longer required to take mandatory quarantine after landing in Chinese mainland. Zhang works as director of infectious diseases atHuashan Hospital, which is affiliated with Fudan University. A closed border also gives the Chinese government more control on who they want to let into the country. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. vaccination programme. A single case can lead to city-wide testing and lockdown. The Hong Kong government needs to get more people vaccinated, and then also be looking at booster shots before they can really start to relax their guard, he says. Travelers at Shenzhen Bay Immigration Control Point in Hong Kong on September 15. Vaccinated motorists line up to cross the border at the San Ysidro crossing port on the Mexico-US border in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on November 7, 2021. But in order to err on the side of caution, and to prevent the spread of the disease, we have to [impose restrictions]Everything we are doing is to protect Hong Kong from another major outbreak.. Would-be travelers must be careful as flights can be canceled at the last minute. Chinese officials declined to explain. Is crazy to think he has a whole other side of the family he hasn't even met yet.". On Aug. 12, a fully vaccinated, 38-year-old female tested positive for the Delta variant of COVID-19 on her 12th day back in Hong Kong after a trip to the U.S. and a seven-day stay in a Hong Kong quarantine hotel. public health experts and local politicians. Beijing is planning to keep its pandemic border restrictions in place for at least another year as officials fret over the emergence of new variants and a calendar of sensitive events,. This is the first in a series about China's plans to reopen its borders amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be hard to convince people that living with the virus is not as scary as the party has claimed. If the pandemic continues for a long time, even the strictest prevention and control methods will not work forever, Zhong said. But few data have been released about how Chinese vaccines cope with variants, or how long they work. On Monday, Hong Kong declared the U.S., France, and 14 other countries as high-risk for COVID-19, meaning that Hong Kong travelers from a total of 25 countries would now have to stay in 21-day mandatory hotel quarantines regardless of vaccination status. Chinese officials are looking with considerable interest at how herd immunity works in highly vaccinated countries with different combinations of vaccines, such as in Israel and Seychelles. Finally, the west is doing its own reopening. These include the Winter Olympics that Beijing will host next February and a Communist Party congress in late 2022, at which Xi Jinping is set to seek a fresh term as supreme leader. Loved ones have missed holidays, birthdays and funerals while nonessential air travel was barred, and they are now eager to reconnect. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. By. In recent weeks, Hong Kong has registered dozens of Delta-variant infections among travelers in its quarantine hotels, even as the city has not registered its own COVID-19 outbreak in months. 27/12/2022. People feel that they made hard sacrifices in 2020 in order to defeat Covid, and see no reason to be exposed to risks again. But quite a few have also had enough. Hong Kongs tight border controls proved effective in keeping the virus at bay, and the city has registered 212 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, compared with over 33,000 deaths in New York City and 15,000 deaths in London. If Hong Kong reopens to international travel, it almost certainly will see a spike in infections and lose all chance of reopening with China. IT IS BECOMING clear that China will not, or perhaps cannot, re-open its borders soon. China has achieved this success due to the effectiveness of its test, trace and isolate measures. Listen to this article:37. . Hong Kong people need to go to the mainland, said the citys leader, Carrie Lam, at a news conference on Tuesday. Did you encounter any technical issues? Health officials caution that travel increases your chances of getting and spreading the virus. And it means clinging onto the zero-Covid strategy, which is looking increasingly untenable in a world where Covid has become basically endemic, Thomas said. The party may even choose to wait until after the annual parliamentary meeting in March 2023 to relax border controls, suggests Huang Yanzhong of the Council for Foreign Relations, an American think-tank. On the boundary with Canada, cross-border hockey rivalries were community traditions until being upended by the pandemic. A woman looks out at Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor on September 30. We have made it very clear that our focus will be opening the border with the mainland. Mainland China is currently deploying measures like strict lockdowns while battling its own Delta-driven COVID-19 outbreaks, even as it has provided enough vaccine doses to inoculate two-thirds of its population. Chinese leaders have declared that zero tolerance of covid-19. GDP in the first quarter of this year grew 18.3%; in the EU, it fell 0.6%. Today (Saturday, 5 June 2021) the borders of China are fully open for 0/ 32 countries, partially open for 51/ 32 countries. appreciated. S&P Index data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. The city of Guangzhou recently built a $260 million, 5,000-room central quarantine facility to house incoming travelers, stoking fears among experts that China may construct such facilities across the country to maintain border restrictions and long quarantines for years to come. Share Your Design Ideas, New JerseysMurphy Defends $10 Billion Rainy Day Fund as States Economy Slows, This Week in Crypto: Ukraine War, Marathon Digital, FTX. The existing 14-day quarantine will be replaced by a seven plus three program consisting of one week of hotel quarantine plus three days of home observation. Before the pandemic, about 300,000 people were crossing the border every day now its a tiny figure, meaning significantly less business for the retail and hospitality sectors. Theyre willing to give up leisure travel for public health., But pandemic fatigue has long set in, and theres no telling when the governments bet on China will pay off. Last month, Bloomberg reported that regulators had instructed major creditors of Evergrande to conduct a fresh round of stress tests on their exposure to the firm, to assess the potential hit to their capital and liquidity should Evergrande run into trouble. Discovery Company. International tourism, both inbound and outbound, has ground to a halt. I do understand that people are annoyed [by the new restrictions], Carrie Lam, Hong Kongs Chief Executive, said in a press conference on Tuesday. Once he tested positive, his colleagues, close contacts and neighbours, and their contacts, numbering tens of thousands in all, were tested and quarantined where necessary. Beijing is planning to keep its pandemic border restrictions in place for at least another year as officials fret over the emergence of new variants and a calendar of sensitive events, according to people familiar with the matter, despite a coronavirus vaccination campaign that has topped one billion doses. . Many people in China like being covid-free. Headhunters are struggling to attract new talent to Hong Kong, with people looking instead to places with more relaxed rules. Or you can also apply a new visa to China. But Hong Kongs strict new rules may help stem Delta-driven outbreaks and bring the city closer to opening quarantine-free travel with mainland Chinathat is, if Chinas government ever chooses to accept travelers from Hong Kong. For the newly qualified entrants, entry depends on having received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines at least 14 days prior to entry. Heavy flooding and record rains devastated parts of Henan province on Tuesday, leaving terrified subway passengers clinging to ceiling handles inside flooded cars, trapped up to their necks in rising water. The government plans to achieve two negative tests from each person in the entire population of about 240,000 from the local Yantian region, before declaring the crisis over.