TOKYO, SEOUL PROTEST BEIJING VISA MOVE
China stops visa issuance in apparent retaliation over travel restrictions
JAPAN and South Korea defended public health restrictions on travellers from China yesterday, a day after China stopped issuing new visas in both countries in apparent retaliation.
Chinese embassies stopped issuing new visas for South Koreans and Japanese on Tuesday.
It wasn’t clear whether China would expand the visa suspensions to other countries that have imposed stricter virus testing on passengers from China following its Ccovid-19 surge.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin yesterday said he found it “significantly regrettable” that China stopped issuing short-term visas to South Koreans and called for China to align its pandemic steps with “scientific and objective facts”.
According to South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency, about 17 per cent of the 2,550 short-term travellers from China from Jan 2 to Tuesday have tested positive.
South Korea has stopped issuing most short-term visas at its consulates in China through the end of the month, while also requiring all passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau to submit proofs of negative tests taken within 48 hours of their arrival in addition to Covid-19 tests at the airport.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno criticised China for “one-sidedly” restricting visa issuances to Japanese nationals “because of a reason not related to Covid-19 measures”.
Tokyo protested and demanded China scrap the measures and that Japan will “respond appropriately while closely watching China’s infection situation and how information disclosures are handled by the Chinese side”, Matsuno said.
Matsuno said Japan had to take temporary measures to avoid
rapid inflow of infections into Japan because of China’s spreading infections and lack of transparency about the situation.
He said Japanese border measures were purely aimed at preventing infections and have aimed to limit effects on international travel.
“It is extremely regrettable that China has one-sidedly restricted visa issuances.”
The Chinese embassies in Tokyo and Seoul announced the suspensions in brief online notices, without providing reasons or details such as when visa issuances will resume.
China’s Foreign Ministry threatened countermeasures last week against countries that had announced new virus testing requirements
for travellers from China. At least 10 governments in Europe, North America and Asia have done so recently. Meanwhile, Thailand sent three ministers to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport to welcome the country’s first planeload of Chinese tourists in years, in a bid to revive inbound tourism.
Japan reopened its borders for individual tourism in October. Most travellers can show proof of vaccination instead of testing at the airport, unless they show symptoms. But since Dec 30, travellers from China must show pre-departure negative tests and take an additional test upon arrival. Those who test positive must quarantine at designated facilities for up to seven days.
According to Health Ministry statistics, about 97 per cent of 497 people who tested positive upon arrivals from Dec 31 to Jan 9 were Chinese or had recently been in China.
China’s worsening Covid-19 situation and lack of information meant that South Korea might need to extend restrictions, senior Disease Control and Prevention Agency official Lim Sookyoung said.
“Just because we haven’t seen the emergence of a new variant doesn’t mean we won’t see one later,” she said.
Park said he didn’t believe that the friction over Covid-19 measures would seriously hurt bilateral relations, which he described as stable.
China’s move appeared to be grounded in its strict view of reciprocity, and demands that its citizens be treated the same as those of other countries.
“Some countries, in disregard of science, facts and their actual epidemic situation, have insisted on taking discriminatory entry restriction measures targeting China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said yesterday.
“China made reciprocal responses in light of the discriminatory measures taken by these countries against China.”
He did not respond directly when asked if new visas had been suspended for South Koreans and Japanese, saying only that he had “made it very clear”.