For China, payback is sweet…foreigners are now banned, flights limited, and gloating abounds. I say “payback” because China was initially livid over government bans that limited its own citizens but has now turned the tables.
China Bans Foreigners From Entering (With Limited Exceptions)
Starting on March 28, 2020, foreigners can no longer visit China, even those with residence permits. There are limited exceptions for certain industries and “humanitarian needs” but those exceptions must be approved in advance. Airline crews and diplomats are also exempt.
The narrative from China is that the vast majority of new coronavirus cases are coming from foreigners, not within. Thus, the move is undergirded by self-defense.
China Limits International Flights, Flight Loads
In addition to limited foreign entry, China will limit international flights in a draconian way. First, load factors cannot exceed 75% on international flights to/from the Mainland in order to promote social distancing. Second, China is strictly limiting the number of international flights. Chinese carriers can only operate one route to any specific country and that route can only operate one time per weekly. Similarly, foreign airlines can only operate one route to China per week.
Politics At Play
State-run media has been running with commentary like this for weeks now:
“Unlike the wishful thinking of some that the novel coronavirus outbreak in China would bring jobs back to the United States, the pandemic has now hit virtually every country. Europe and the US are becoming the new epicenters of the pandemic while China has virtually contained the outbreak after taking comprehensive and stringent measures over the past two months.”
Almost every article in every state-run newspaper includes a sentence like this:
“China, which has virtually contained the novel coronavirus outbreak, is lending a hand to other countries.”
And you just have to wonder if that is true, or not. China, the country which blocks google and heavily censors information maintains its iron grip over society through controlling information outflow and stifling dissent…just ask Li Wenliang. But when the narrative is that everything is under control and dissenting voices are silenced, everyone begins to buy into that narrative.
Well folks, it should be questioned. Not for the sake of questioning it or because China is “bad” (as if such simple labels carry any meaningful value judgement), but because Mainland China has every incentive to mask the truth and has a track record of doing so.
And to be clear, China is probably smart to ban foreign visitors, especially as the virus spirals out of control in the United States and continues to grow in Western Europe. Calling it the “Chinese Virus” (even if true) does not help the situation and the lack of available testing means the cases in the USA are probably significantly higher than currently reported. Furthermore, if this account on One Mile at a Time represents general practice, China is doing a much better job than the United States in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
CONCLUSION
Mainland China will close to foreign visitors on March 28th. It will also limit flights and limit the number of passengers on those flights. Will this make a meaningful difference as the world continues to grapple with this hidden enemy? Time will tell.
(H/T: One Mile at a Time)
Except no one wants go there now that bat sampling is off the menu.
China took it to an inhumane extreme by including foreigners who have Chinese residency permits
“And you just have to wonder if that is true, or not.”
With China, you never can tell. Especially given how strong the state propaganda machine is.
China is engaged in massive state sponsored disinformation campaign.
They want to rename the china ccp virus causing the wuhan flu to something more benign. But remember it started in wuhan and spread due to lies and inaction of the china ccp.
By the way i am beginning to come around to trumps way of thinking. I have always said we spend too much on air security for saving a few hundred lives. I think the same for this. 2 trillion is too much to save a few thousand american lives. I say survival of the fittest and all that. You either earn the cost of your life or you make way for someone who can.
Payback? They gave Covid-19 to the world by allowing their people to engage in nasty, unsanitary behavior and then covering it up for 2-3 months while the virus raged – and Wuhanese fled to other parts of the country by the millions. They still lie – about the numbers of infected and dead. Upon returning from Wuhan, American expats were tested and between 3-5 percent on each flight tested positive. That percentage of Wuhan residents would amount to between 210,000 and 350,000 infected individuals in that city alone. Don’t believe anything they tell you!
Nothing a couple of nukes wouldn’t cure. Bye bye China. It’s just too bad the west has sold its soul to them.
All the more reason for Western countries to pull their manufacturing jobs out of China. Now that’s payback!
“Payback is sweet” for China. Beijing shouldn’t gloat just yet, but rather ‘watch this space’. Because when the dust settles, the exodus out of China is going to be something to behold, as foreign companies decide the risks ( financial, political, social and Heath) are far too great to operate there. The rush to the exit started before COVID, but will intensify over the next couple of years.
The way Beijing now tries to promote itself as a good citizen , offering token medical teams ( but profiting off over-priced, faulty equipment sales), is vomit-worthy.
This is like firing someone after they quit.
The funniest part of all this tragedy is that North Korea is ordering social distancing but claim they have so far zero cases of Coronavirus in the country. Same goes to China. I can only imagine what happened to poor Chinese that got infected. They were probably evaporated from the Earth and never made to the statistics.
Isn’t this the same country that labeled other countries “racist” for doing the same thing not long ago? Who says the mainland Chinese can’t be flexible? They can use twisted logic to contort things as justifiable for them but not for other countries. I just call it vast hypocrisy.
Lol. So many hate and racist, in frequent flyer blog, where the blogger flies around the world, meet different people and culture. The irony only adds the funny….
The justified anger is directed at Beijing, and the system…not at Chinese people ( that’s not to say that some loonies don’t use the virus as justification for their racism…but that’s never seen on this blog…)
Lol. And what do you know about beijing and the system thereto, other than what you’ve known from the media? Haha
“that route can only operate one time per weekly”
Hot English.
Anyone traveling now is an idiot who deserves condemnation. President Trump did good to close travel from China in January before anyone else. Unfortunately Italy and Iran were not as fast and the contagion in NYC and the East Coast can be traced to influx from Iran and Italy. This wouldn’t have happened if people were responsible. I can’t blame people for travel in January but by Feb. 15 it became apparent the real danger that this virus would spread beyond East Asia. So many bloggers were pushing travel or traveling themselves and so many people were eager to take their cruises. Then Trump close travel of Europeans to the U.S. and criticized him for it but not when every country did the same a week later.
China did the world dirty with the origination of the virus and the same with SARS. They have severe overpopulation, severe pollution and eat peculiar animals including bats. This is why so many issues have cropped up in the last 20 years from China. They even had the Swine Fever affecting pigs in 2019. Every country has issues like this but not like China.
China however is not paying anyone back with the foreign travel ban. It is a perfectly sensible move that any government would make. Do you really think China shouldn’t ban travel by foreigners into its country in these circumstances? Anyone who thinks that is insane.
The hatred spewed in these comments…also spurred on by the author calling it “payback” may bring catharsis to those making them, but China didn’t call it a hoax, it didn’t have crappy testing, it didn’t leave their doctors and nurses high and dry without PPE, it didn’t have spring breakers partying on its beaches…
As far as COVID management goes, those of us here should wait until we’re out of our glass houses before we throw any more stones.
Thank you Beijing Pete, but I wasn’t throwing any stones. Appreciate your non-sequitur response to the points I actually made, though.
Want to know how China was able to produce so many medical supplies it is now delivering to the rest of the world?
https://www.enca.com/news/factory-mask-owner-arrested-allegedly-exploiting-workers
Yep.