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Letters | Biden declared the pandemic ‘over’. Why won’t the US welcome Chinese tourists?
- Readers discuss the West’s mandatory testing for travellers from China, and Hong Kong’s status as an arbitration hub
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Last September, US President Joe Biden declared that “the pandemic is over”. Western consuls general even wrote letters to the Hong Kong chief executive last February, complaining about the city’s closed international borders.
The West has long accepted that it has to live with the virus, despite daily Covid deaths in the hundreds.
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So how come when China finally decides to reopen, countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia are suddenly enforcing anti-epidemic measures against travellers from China, including Hong Kong?
Notably, the US requires Covid tests for travellers from mainland China and Hong Kong. Such measures are a demonstration of Western hypocrisy, a display of China paranoia and a purely politically driven response.
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US officials say the measures are being enforced due to the limited public information on the spread of the virus in China, and the possible threat of a new variant, amid massive infections on the mainland.
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