China Hits COVID Rules Imposed On Its Citizens By Other Nations

China has warned of “countermeasures” against the European Union (EU) for imposing strict COVID measures on Chinese visitors, forgetting that Beijing itself had inflicted severe rules on foreigners after the pandemic broke in Wuhan late in 2019, Joe McDonald and Kanis Leung reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: COVID outbreaks have consistently hit China.

China has consistently made the false claim that the COVID virus originated in the US or Europe but never provided a shred of evidence to back up its claim. Health experts, including those from the World Health Organization (WHO), have rightly accused China of withholding data that could help narrow the search for the cause.

On Wednesday, EU “strongly encouraged” its member states to impose pre-departure COVID-19 testing of passengers from China. EU nations have reacted with a variety of restrictions toward travelers from China, disregarding an earlier commitment to act in unity.

Italy — where the pandemic first exacted a heavy toll in Europe in early 2020 — was the first EU member to require COVID tests for airline passengers coming from China, but France and Spain quickly followed with their own measures.

That followed the US, which required all passengers from China to show a negative test result in the previous 48 hours before departure.

In dealing with the latest outbreak, China has sought to get more of its elderly population vaccinated, but those efforts have been hampered by past scandals involving fake medications and previous warnings about adverse reactions to the vaccines among older people.

COVID outbreaks have consistently hit China, experts said, prompting Chinese President Xi Jinping to conduct absurd swab tests on fish, meat and vegetables, consistent with the theory that anti-China forces introduced the virus to squeaky-clean China.

At a daily briefing Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing has consistently shared information and data with the international community in an open and transparent manner, but investigations conducted by the US and other groups said Chinese officials have prevented the dissemination of data about blood samples of the initial infections.

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