COVID-19 curbs retaliation: China suspends short-term visas for South Koreans, Japanese

In China's first reprisal against COVID-19 restrictions imposed on Chinese travellers, the country has suspended issuing short-term visas for South Koreans and Japanese. In a statement released on Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in South Korea said that South Koreans would no longer be granted visas for the purpose of travel, business, medical treatment, transit, and general private affairs, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

The policy will change only if South Korea lifts its "discriminatory entry restrictions" against China, as per the embassy's official WeChat account.

According to China's foreign ministry, the announcement comes a day after Foreign Minister Qin Gang spoke with his South Korean counterpart Park Jin over the phone and voiced concern about the curbs, AFP reported. Park reportedly told Qin that the new border restrictions were nothing but "science-based" measures.

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“The Korean government’s strengthened prevention measures for entrants from China are based on scientific and objective grounds,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk said in a briefing. “The government has been transparently sharing relevant information with the international community, and has continued to communicate with the Chinese side.”

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On Tuesday, China suspended issuing visas to Japanese travellers, Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported citing unidentified sources in the travel industry. Other countries including the United States, South Korea, France, etc., have also introduced testing requirements in response to China's fresh Covid outbreak.

Chinese visitors were barred from visiting South Korea since the country had earlier halted providing short-term visas to Chinese travellers until January 31. Flights to Busan, Daegu, and Jeju are suspended, and flights between South Korea and China are only available through Seoul's Incheon International airport, SCMP reported. Seoul on Tuesday said that flights from Hong Kong and Macau will also be allowed to arrive only at Incheon airport.

South Korean authorities located a Chinese man, last week, who had vanished while awaiting quarantine after arriving in the country and testing positive for COVID-19, raising concerns.

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Earlier this month, Beijing threatenedcountermeasures against “unacceptable” Covid measures. “We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China lack scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

In December last year, China decided to lift its "zero Covid" policy, following which the Chinese citizens and residents demanded flights to travel across world. The EU is worried that a sudden influx of Chinese travellers could spread Covid strains to other parts of the world that the current vaccinationsmay be able to withstand.

(With inputs from agencies)

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