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Leave your partner and children behind. Quarantine for up to one month. Get vaccinated with a Covid-19 vaccine from China, if you can find one. And get ready for an anal smear.
Over the past year, people who tried to go to China have encountered some of the most formidable barriers to entry in the world. To stop the coronavirus, China completely bans tourists and short-term business travelers, and sets strict standards for all other foreigners, even those who have lived there for years.
The restrictions have hampered the operations of many companies, separated families and disrupted the lives of thousands of international students. Global companies say their ranks of foreign workers in the country have been drastically reduced.
At a time of tense tensions with the United States and other countries, China remains safe from the pandemic. At the same time, it risks further isolating its economy, the world’s second-largest, at a time when its main trading partners are emerging from their own self-imposed recessions.
“When it comes to such draconian measures, people who are big fans of China will be disenfranchised and not allowed to return to the country where they have made their home,” said Alexander Style, a British business owner. Based in Shanghai that manufactures electric vehicle parts for export, he has been forced to relocate with his family to New Jersey.
Other countries have their own travel restrictions, although few are as strict. The United States, for example, prohibits foreigners from traveling directly from China unless they are green card holders or certain direct family members of US citizens. It also prohibits foreigners from leaving Europe, as well as Brazil and other countries.
Australia allows a few hundred of its citizens and permanent residents to enter each day, while Japan has banned foreign workers and students since late December.
In China, officials see travel limits as crucial to their success in containing the virus. Since the outbreak began, China has reported more than 101,000 Covid cases. Although questions have been raised about the accuracy of the numbers, they are much lower than in the United States, where 29.8 million people have tested positive for the virus. China’s strategy reflects both its strengths and its weaknesses.
China was the only major economy that grew last year. He knows companies will find a way to keep their operations in China running, with or without expatriates, and he’s betting they’ll come back when the pandemic subsides. At the same time, China’s restrictions highlight the shortcomings of its vaccine launch, which has been slow compared to those in the United States, Britain and other countries.
Foreign executives think China is likely to be one of the last countries in the world to fully reopen, perhaps until next year, after the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. China’s restrictions will mean significant delays in building large factories or securing sales orders, according to business groups.
In recent days, Chinese embassies in at least 50 countries have said that foreigners wishing to enter China could avoid some visa formalities by taking a Covid-19 vaccine made in China. The government has presented the rule as a relaxation of its visa application procedures. But it doesn’t help travelers from countries like the United States where Chinese vaccines are not available.
“It’s kind of a Catch-22,” said Jeff Jolly, who has been stuck in the United States since July after leaving Shanghai, where he runs a language training center and academic consultancy.
In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said: “We believe this is a significant exploration to facilitate international travel once mass vaccination has been achieved.”
As more deadly and infectious virus variants appeared in other countries in recent months, China introduced onerous new requirements.
At the end of last year, it essentially stopped allowing anyone to bring a spouse or child into the country. Since January, travelers arriving in Beijing from countries with severe outbreaks have had to undergo weekly anal swab tests while in quarantine, with fecal material tested for traces of the virus. The move drew outraged complaints from the United States and Japan.
Last month, the government announced that foreign and Chinese travelers from more than two dozen countries would have to undergo two weeks of overseas employer-supervised quarantine before being allowed to fly to China. Then after landing, they were expected to spend two more weeks in a government-run quarantine facility.
The number of managers of foreign companies in China has plummeted. A survey of 191 companies in southern China by the US Chamber of Commerce found that 70 percent had fewer than five expatriate employees in China at the end of last year, compared with 33 percent the previous year. The proportion of companies without expatriates had risen to 28 percent, from 9 percent the previous year.
Style, owner of the electric vehicle parts company, said the Chinese visa process now favors large companies that bring in a lot of tax revenue, not startups like his business. He said that he had settled in the United States, his wife is an American, and that he did not plan to return to China anytime soon.
The Foreign Ministry said China’s re-entry policy “treats all foreign personnel equally and there is no so-called differential treatment.”
China’s restrictions have been compounded by decisions on visas and entry requirements that can seem arbitrary to those trying to return.
Glyn Wise, who had been teaching English literature at an international school in Shanghai, was able to obtain a work visa from the Chinese Embassy in London in October. But the agency that helped prepare his application later told him that Chinese border officials would not recognize the visa.
“A lot of times they changed the rules about who they accepted,” Wise said. He said he was looking for job opportunities outside of China.
But many others are still hopeful, and some have organized social media campaigns to draw attention to their plight.
Nearly 13,000 international students who stayed out of China signed an online petition urging Beijing to allow them to return, while others launched a Twitter campaign called #TakeUsBackToChina.
Amanuel Tafese, Enrolled Ethiopian Student At a university in southwest China’s city of Chengdu, he said he had tried to take his lessons online since he was banned from the country early last year. But he had to rent a space to do so, because there is no electricity or internet access in his family’s home, 450 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa.
Mr. Tafese says he cannot find a job because he does not have a degree and relies on his father’s small income to support himself.
“All of this depressed me,” Tafese wrote in an email.
China’s tough restrictions, including its recent ban on dependents, have also taken an emotional toll on some families who have been forced to live apart for months, in some cases more than a year.
In February of last year, Jessie Astbury Allen brought her two young daughters to England to await the outbreak that swept through China, hoping they would join her husband in Shanghai for Easter.
It was a plan that he would come to regret.
“I knew deep down we were doing the wrong thing, but it was too late,” she said, crying, as she described how it felt to land at London Heathrow Airport.
Like many parents facing lockdown, Astbury Allen has had to juggle the demands of her daughters’ online classes with her job as the China director of a marketing and strategy company that helps foreign brands sell in China. .
In late September, the government announced that people with expired residence permits could return to China after applying for a visa. Ms. Astbury Allen was quick to apply for one in October. But when he got to a visa center, the rules had already changed.
China announced on November 4 that it would temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners from Britain, even if they had valid visas or residence permits. He described the move as a “temporary response” as Covid-19 cases rose in Britain.
The situation has left Ms. Astbury Allen feeling overwhelmed. What worries her most is the trauma this separation is inflicting on her daughters.
Her 12-year-old daughter, Livia, became depressed and hid under her blanket, refusing to leave her room for three days. When Mae, her usually cheerful 7-year-old girl, saw her mother cry last month, she became very sad and emotional, Astbury Allen said.
“I said, ‘Do you miss your dad, honey?” said Mrs. Astbury Allen. “And she said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘Okay. We miss him too. ‘
Elsie chen , Coral Yang | Y Claire fu contributed research.
