Leave your spouse and children behind. Quarantine for one month. If you can find one, inoculate with the Covid-19 vaccine from China. And prepare yourself for an anal swab.
Over the past year, people trying to move to China have entered some of the world’s biggest hurdles. To prevent coronavirus, China imposes a complete ban on tourists and short-term business travelers, and it also sets strict standards for all other foreigners who have lived there for years.
The sanctions disrupted the operations of many companies, separated families and claimed the lives of thousands of international students. Global companies say the number of their foreign workers in the country is declining rapidly.
At a time of tension with the United States and other countries, China is protecting itself from epidemics. At the same time, it risks further isolating its economy, the world’s second-largest, at a time when its major trading partners are emerging from their own self-imposed recession.
“When it comes to this drastic measure, you have to be a big fan of China and not allow people to return to the country where they have made their home,” said Alexander Lakes Style, a British owner of the Shanghai-based company. Makes parts, having been forced to move to New Jersey with his family.
Other countries have their own travel restrictions, though much less tight. For example, the United States will ban foreigners traveling directly from China unless they have green card holders or some immediate family members of American citizens. It also bans foreigners from Europe, as well as Brazil and other countries.
Australia allows only a few hundred citizens and permanent residents every day, while Japan has banned the entry of foreign workers and students since the end of December.
In China, officials consider travel limits crucial to their success in carrying the virus. Since the outbreak began, China has reported more than 101,000 covid cases. However, questions have been raised about the accuracy of the numbers, far fewer than in the United States, where 29.8 million people have tested positive for the virus. China’s strategy reflects its strengths as well as its weaknesses.
China was the only major economy last year. He knows that businesses will find a way to continue their Chinese operations, with or without foreigners, and he bets that they will return when the epidemic subsides. At the same time, China’s sanctions highlight the imperfections of its vaccine rollout, which is slower than in the United States, Britain and other countries.
Foreign officials believe that after the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, China is likely to be one of the last few countries in the world to fully reopen by the end of next year. China’s controls will mean significant delays in building large factories or winning sales orders, according to business groups.
In recent days, Chinese embassies in at least 50 countries have said that foreigners wishing to enter China can avoid some visa paperwork by taking the Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine. The government has introduced a rule to ease its visa application process. But it can’t help travelers to countries like the United States where the Chinese vaccine is not available.
“It’s a kind of Q-4,” said Jeff Jolie, who has been stuck in the US since July after leaving Shanghai, where he runs a language training center and educational consultancy.
In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said: “We believe that facilitating international travel once mass vaccination is received is a meaningful research.”
As the deadly and more contagious virus types have appeared in other countries in recent months, China has introduced drastic new requirements.
At the end of last year, he essentially stopped allowing anyone to bring a spouse or child into the country. Since January, travelers arriving in Beijing from countries with severe epidemics have had to undergo weekly anal swab tests during quarantine, while testing specific materials for virus traces. The move prompted angry 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 do employer-supervised offspring abroad for two weeks before they could even be allowed to travel to China. Then, after landing, they were expected to spend two more weeks in a government-run quarantine facility.
The number of foreign business managers in China has declined. A survey of 191 businesses in southern China by the American Chamber of Commerce found that at the end of last year, 70 percent of people in China had less than five domestic workers, compared to 33 percent a year earlier. The proportion of foreign companies has risen to 28 per cent from 9 per cent a year ago.
Mr Style, owner of the Electric Vehicle Parts Company, said the Chinese visa process now supports large companies that contribute not only to start-ups like their business but also to tax revenue. He said he has settled in the United States – his wife is American – and has no plans to return to China any time soon.
The Foreign Ministry said China’s re-entry policy “treats all foreign workers equally, and there is no so-called discriminatory treatment.”
The decision on visa and entry requirements exacerbates China’s sanctions which seems arbitrary among those trying to return.
Glenn Wise, who studied English literature at Shanghai International School, was able to obtain a work visa from the Chinese embassy in London in October. But the agency that helped prepare his application later said Chinese border officials would not accept the visa.
Mr Wise said, “Often they will change the rules about who they are accepting. He said he is looking for job opportunities outside of China.
But many others are still optimistic, and some have organized campaigns on social media to draw attention to their plight.
About 13,000 international students were kept away from China by signing a Beijing online petition, requesting permission to return to Beijing, while others launched a Twitter campaign called #TakeUsBackToChina.
Ethiopian student Emanuel Tafis registered A university in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu said he tried to take his lessons online after shutting down outside the country early last year. But he had to rent space to do so, as his family home, 280 miles from the capital Addis Ababa, had no electricity or internet access.
Mr Tafiz says he can’t get a job because he doesn’t have a degree, and he depends on his father’s small income to support himself.
“All of this frustrated me,” Mr Taffe wrote in an email.
China’s strict sanctions, including its recent ban on dependents, have also given some families an emotional toll, forcing them to stay apart for more than a month in some months.
In February last year, Jesse Astbury Allen took her two young daughters to England so that she could wait around China, hoping to be reunited with her husband in Shanghai by Easter.
It was a plan he would regret.
“I know we’re doing the wrong thing in my gut, but it’s too late,” she said, sobbing as she described how she felt when she landed at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Like many parents facing parental controversy, Ms. Astbury Allen will have to help her daughter with the demands of online classes as a China director of a marketing and strategy company in a job 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 ran to apply for one in October. But by the time he reached the visa center, the rules had changed.
China announced on November 4 that it would temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners from Britain, even if they have a visa or permission to stay. The move was hailed as a “temporary response” to the rise in Kovid-19 cases in Britain.
The situation has overwhelmed Mrs. Astbury Allen’s feelings. She worries the most about the trauma that this scattering affects her daughters.
Her 12-year-old Livia was devastated and refused to come out of her room for three days, hiding under her blanket. May, her normally cheerful 7-year-old, became very upset and emotional when she saw her mother crying last month, Ms. Said Astbury Alley.
“I said, ‘Do you miss your dad, honey?’ Ms. Astbury told Allen. “And he said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘That’s right. We miss him too. ”
Elsie Chen , Coral Yang And Claire Fu Contributed research.
