CHINA: to Ease Quarantine Requirements for Overseas Travelers

China plans to cut quarantine requirements for overseas travellers in January 2022 as it dismantles its COVID Zero policy.

Officials are considering implementing a “0+3” policy, where the requirement for quarantine in a hotel or isolation facility would be eliminated, and arrivals would be subject to three days of monitoring instead. It is unclear at this time what form the monitoring will take or if it will involve quarantining at home. The plan’s details, including the start date in January, are still being finalized.

Current Quarantine Rules in China

Currently, China requires travellers to quarantine at a hotel or other facility for at least the first five days after arrival.

Those with a residence in the city where they enter China are then allowed to spend the next three days at home, though they are not allowed to leave that location. This regime was put in place while infections inside China were suppressed through mass testing and lockdowns. This approach has become less relevant as authorities take steps to reopen the economy.

Hong Kong’s “0+3” Policy

Hong Kong introduced a similar “0+3” policy when it reopened to travellers in November 2022, with arrivals having restricted access to venues such as bars and restaurants for the first three days.

Reopening of China-Hong Kong Border

Last week, the South China Morning Post reported that the border between Hong Kong and mainland China is set to fully reopen in early January 2023, suggesting that authorities in Beijing are preparing to reduce restrictions on travel to boost the country’s flagging economy.

Preparations are being made to reopen the border, including deploying thousands of customs, immigration, and police officers to handle the expected crowds. Hong Kong’s Under Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Liu Chun-san, also announced that the city is preparing to resume its high-speed rail services with mainland China.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

It’s good to see the end of China’s extraordinarily repressive implementation of COVID Zero rules. However, the rapidity of the policy change, the apparent lack of preparedness, and low immunisation rates with the substantially less effective Chinese vaccines all point to a period of high transmission levels, hospitalisation, and millions of deaths. The effect on the Chinese health system, already overloaded, could be telling.

Hong Kong and China have faced tough challenges over the last 3 to 5 years. From the protest and democracy movements, and reactive political repression in Hong Kong, to the challenge of managing COVID across the vast country, especially in large, highly populated cities, China’s political apparatus and law and order policies have faltered. And this is amongst a regime concentrating power more and more to the top.

The economic impact of the Chinese not travelling, whether it is within China or internationally, has had a profound effect on the world economy. Some commentators believe that the lack of Chinese airlines flying internationally is one reason that airline capacity has shrunk profoundly and prices have lifted towards the stratosphere. Once Chinese airlines return to the sky, and Chinese tourists return, the world travel outlook will profoundly change – mainly for the better.

This story was written with the assistance of ChatGPT. Images © 2PAXfly.com unless otherwise stated.