Covid-19: China’s ‘zero corona’ policy frustrates Japanese in Beijing during Lunar New Year celebrations

Workers already separated from family because of the pandemic are up against the Beijing government’s stringent new measures to curb the movement of people

Hampered by a list of rules inhibiting face-to-face business, workers are booking out golf courses in China’s capital

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People walk under traditional Chinese lanterns along an alley in Beijing as the nation prepares to usher in the Year of the Ox on Friday. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:57pm, 11 Feb 2021Updated: 4:20pm, 11 Feb 2021

With the Lunar New Year holiday coming, China’s drastic “zero corona” policy has baffled Japanese workers in Beijing, most of whom have been forced to stay in the capital for more than a year.

One day before the 40-day Spring Festival travel season – dubbed the world’s biggest human migration period – began on January 28, the Beijing government abruptly announced more stringent steps to restrict the movement of people to prevent the intrusion of the novel coronavirus.

“I had planned to make a temporary return to Japan during the Lunar New Year holiday to meet my family and had booked a flight, but I eventually postponed,” said a Japanese male worker at the Beijing office of Sony Corp.

“I have not met my baby who was born last year in Japan. I hope that the situation will get better as soon as possible,” he said ahead of the seven-day holiday that kicked off on Thursday.

Many Japanese workers in Beijing live alone because their family members, who evacuated from China amid the outbreak in early 2020, have been stranded at home in Japan since the Chinese government limited the entry of foreigners last year.