Customs clearance between Hong Kong and mainland China started on January 8th. Just as China was lifting restrictions on foreign countries, the United States and the West began imposing restrictions on China.
I didn’t want to look too politically at foreign countries’ epidemic prevention and control measures for Chinese tourists. But when the US and the West have successively announced control measures, the pace is so steady and the transition so rapid that it really needs to be seen as more political.
The latest chapter is that the EU “strongly encourages” member states to require passengers arriving from China to show negative test certificates before departure. The pace of the US and the West towards China tends to be the same.
First, the four eyes alliance obviously changes. Anglo-Saxon countries led by the United States have a Five Eyes alliance. This time the epidemic control measures taken against China, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada followed the United States. As of January 5, passengers from China are required to undergo a nucleic acid test within 48 hours. The test showed that New Zealand, as always, refused to join the Five Eyes Alliance’s anti-China actions and did not impose restrictions on Chinese tourists.
Second, the breakthrough process is abrupt. When the ‘Four-Eyes Alliance’ took concerted action, the transition process between the UK and Australia was very abrupt and they changed around the same time, 30 and 31 December. Prior to this, both the British and Australian governments had stated that no special control measures were needed for travelers from China. Health experts from the United Kingdom and Australia considered the relevant measures to be useless, and all stressed that if the measures were to prevent the influx of variant viruses from China, the XBB Cases, if you want to be careful, you should protect yourself from United States, not China. But a day or two later, the British and Australian governments moved on to establishing restrictions one after another, and the switchover process was abrupt.
Third, the invisible hand of Big Brother. The actions of the “Four-Eyes Alliance”, especially when they started requiring nucleic acid testing for passengers from China on January 5, are entirely consistent with the actions of the United States. It is suspected that they are the masterpieces of the directors Americans. After the “Four Eyes Alliance” swung into action, the European Union followed suit.
Fourth, the country’s fight against the epidemic has no coverage. The most unreasonable thing about the restrictions imposed by the United States and Western countries on Chinese tourists is that these countries are completely flat at home and have no anti-epidemic measures. Now they claim to restrict Chinese tourists to prevent imported mutant viruses, but in fact they won’t help control the local epidemic at all, because they have no intention of controlling the epidemic.
A friend has just returned from the UK and was not diagnosed in Hong Kong but was diagnosed as soon as she went to the UK. She said that in London’s theatres, stadiums, trains, undergrounds, restaurants, hotels and churches, people were seen coughing everywhere and nobody paid any attention to them and nobody was wearing a mask. Her friends have criticized the UK for ‘I really don’t know what to say and have said they are afraid Chinese tourists will infect them’.
I think these actions against Chinese tourists are false in preventing the epidemic and true in stigmatizing China.
During the New Year period in mainland China, many large cities are already crowded with people, the fireworks are coming again, and the consumption atmosphere after the epidemic is strong. As US-led Western countries make political decisions to cause trouble for Chinese tourists, China can launch a “post-epidemic domestic consumption campaign” and advise citizens not to travel to countries in the region that impose restrictions on Chinese tourists if unnecessary. Consumption on the continent stimulates the local economy.
The first wave of retaliatory consumption after the epidemic has the strongest consumption power. If citizens mainly stay in the country, it will greatly benefit the country’s economic recovery after the epidemic.
Since people want to pick on us, why should we make fun of ourselves?
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Lu Yongxiong
