Aussie travel ban not good – China

IN spite of the fact that the World Health Organization ( WHO) has unambiguously advised against unnecessary interfering and limiting international travel and trade amid novel coronavirus outbreak, Canberra haphazardly followed Washington’s example of imposing border closure to students, tourists, business travelers and other visitors coming from the Chinese mainland.

Such insensitive overreaction is detrimental to the normal exchanges and frequent mobility which are of critical importance to the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

There are 260,000 Chinese students enrolled in schools and universities across Australia, generating $12 billion Australian dollars annually to the country’s economy. At this moment, almost 100,000 of them are being kept in limbo, unable to commence or resume their education onshore due to the abrupt imposition of the travel ban.

For those who have successfully entered the country by the closure date, some of the youngsters have been forcibly put in detention while the visas of some other students were arbitrarily and unfairly canceled.

Self-conflicting policies and announcements further exacerbated the dire situation, baffling not only students and their parents, but also education providers in Australia.

WHO Director General Dr.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, rightly advised “all countries to implement decisions that are evidence- based and consistent.” Australia’s precipitous decree clearly runs against sensibility, while betraying its characteristically blind and senseless shadowing of US policies and practices with regard to China.

It is understood that the US has its own vested interest in taking advantage of the current health crisis to stir up another scaremongering campaign against China, which runs counter to the basic principles of morality and humanity. Washington’s blatant conniving serves its long-term global strategy of containing and deterring China.