BEIJING – Efforts by the US, Japan and others to mandate COVID-19 testing for passengers arriving from China reflect global concerns about it new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive eruption – and the government may not be informing the rest of the world fast enough.
So far there have been no reports of new variants. But given the country’s track record, there is concern that China may not share data on signs of developing strains that could spark new outbreaks elsewhere.
The United States, in Announcement of a negative test Request on Wednesday for passengers from China, citing both the rise in infections and a lack of information, including genomic sequencing of virus strains in the country.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed a similar concern about a lack of information when he announced an obligation to examine for passengers from China earlier this week.
More generally, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said recently that the WHO needed more information on the severity of the outbreak in China, particularly in relation to hospital and intensive care admissions, “to undertake a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation on the ground.”
This anger-tinged dubiousness on the part of the international community is a direct result of the ruling Communist Party’s sudden and ill-prepared exit from its tough policies, said Miles Yu, director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute think tank.
“You can’t run the madness of zero Covid lockdowns for such a long period that was doomed to fail, and then suddenly unleash a multitude of infected people from a locked down China onto the world, risking further infections of potentially hundreds of people Millions more in other countries,” Yu said in an email.
India, South Korea, Taiwan and Italy have also announced various test requirements for passengers from China. German health authorities are monitoring the situation but have not taken similar preventive steps.
“We have no evidence that a more dangerous variant has evolved in this outbreak in China, which would be a reason to declare a virus variant area, which would entail corresponding travel restrictions,” said Health Ministry spokesman Sebastian Guelde.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said last week that China has always responsibly shared its information with the WHO and the international community.
“We are willing to work in solidarity with the international community to address the COVID challenge more effectively, better protect people’s life and health, and together restore steady economic growth and build a global health community for all,” she said.
However, in a hardening of China’s rhetoric, Mao’s colleague Wang Wenbin on Wednesday lashed out at critical foreign media coverage of China’s new approach.
“This type of rhetoric is biased, intended to smear China and politically motivated,” Wang said at a daily briefing by the ministry.
China rolled back many of its strict pandemic restrictions earlier this month, allowing the virus to spread in a country that had experienced relatively few infections since a first devastating outbreak in the city of Wuhan in early 2020.
The spiral of infections led to shortages of cold medication, long lines at fever clinics, and emergency rooms that turned patients away because they were at full capacity. The number of cremations has risen many times over, with overburdened funeral homes in the city of Guangzhou asking families to postpone funeral services until next month.
China has not reported extensively, accusing Western media of exaggerating the situation. The government has been accused of controlling information about the outbreak since the pandemic began.
An AP investigation showed that China controlled the spread of its internal research on the origins of COVID-19 in 2020. A WHO expert group said in a report this year that “key data” on how the pandemic started was still missing and calls for an in-depth investigation.
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Wu reported from Taipei, Taiwan. AP writer Geir Moulson in Berlin and video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed.
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