The country last month announced it would reopen its borders for the first time since the onset of Covid-19 on 8 January, which will see the country end its mandatory quarantine policy.
However, many countries – including the UK, US, India, Japan and several EU nations – have announced plans to introduce testing requirements for arrivals from China owing to the country’s high rates of Covid-19 infection, and to guard against the import of new variants of the infection.
The European Commission is on Wednesday (4 January) expected to decide whether to introduce blanket measures for Chinese arrivals throughout the bloc.
The UK’s measures, meanwhile, will come into effect on Thursday (5 January) and will see arrivals from China required to provide evidence of a recent negative test for Covid-19, dating to no more than two days prior to departure.
In addition, the UK Health Security Agency will up Covid surveillance measures from Sunday (8 January), which will see a sample of passengers arriving in England from mainland China tested for Covid at the point of their arrival.
The UK government said the decision to introduce curbs on Chinese travellers owed to the "lack of comprehensive health information" shared by the country around the current extent of its Covid-19 epidemic.
Cited by The Guardian speaking at a recent briefing, China’s foreign minister spokesperson Mao Ning said: "We believe the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China lack scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable."
"We are firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate the Covid measures for political purposes and will take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity."
UK transport secretary Mark Harper, though, has indicated there will be no self-isolation or quarantine requirement for travellers from China who test positive for Covid-19 upon their arrival in the UK. Harper said the effort was about collecting data on China’s Covid epidemic amid the country’s reluctance to share its own data.
Tests will be sequenced to check for potential new variants of Covid-19, with the virus having circulated in China since its emergence largely without the effect of international travel.
