The plunge came after a Chinese court froze $20 million worth of bank deposits from Evergrande at the request of one of its creditors. Chinas 350kmph driverless bullet train should be top of your list. Only 36% of people over the age of 60 have gotten one dose, according to government data, which means that a Delta outbreak could prove deadly in Hong Kong. Updated Given the sheer size of the company and the fact that its huge debt is widely held in China by banks and retail investors a default by Evergrande could pose significant risks to Chinas financial system. You can also find trackers showing the global roll-out of vaccines, excess deaths by country and the viruss spread across Europe and America. The Covid-19 pandemic started in Chinas Hubei province, but early and strict lockdowns originally helped keep the virus under control. More than a year and a half after COVID-19 concerns prompted the U.S. to close its borders to international travelers from countries including Brazil, China, India, South Africa, the U.K. and much of Europe, restrictions are shifting to focus on vaccine status. Sign up here. To avoid that, China should prepare for a fundamental shift away from its "zero Covid" mindset once it achieves its 80 per cent vaccination target and reaches herd immunity by the end of the year . Photo: AP. Those failing the checks will be sent to government facilities. But one city, arguably Asias biggest financial center, is absent from the list: Hong Kong. In August, Chinese social media users launched a campaign against another top Chinese infectious disease expert, Zhang Wenhong, for his comments that China must learn to coexist with the virus, rather than try to eradicate it. IN JUNE 2021 one of Chinas most respected scientists tentatively suggested that the country might want to begin relaxing its zero-covid policy in 2022. Discovery Company. Beijing, where top leaders live, is off limits. Yet the government has stood firm repeatedly emphasizing that its priority is reopening its border with mainland China, not with the rest of the world. Discovery Company. The government will have to convince people that they have to and can live with Covid. The provisional timeline of the second half of 2022 was set during a mid-May meeting of the countrys cabinet, or State Council, attended by officials from Chinas Foreign Ministry and National Health Commission, among other government bodies, one of the people said. In recent weeks, Hong Kong has registered dozens of Delta-variant infections among travelers in its quarantine hotels, even as the city has not registered its own COVID-19 outbreak in months. Finally, though open discussion of this question is taboo, the authorities are being oddly secretive about how well Chinese-made vaccines work. The economic costs of Chinas COVID-19 policies continue to mount with each new outbreak. The key to this success has been the rapidity and rigour of the measures taken to curtail community transmission. Chinese leaders have declared that zero tolerance of covid-19 is a mark of good government. From January 8, 2023, China restarted its visa-free policy. Last month, online magazine ChinaFile said among 121 China-connected scholars, journalists, former diplomats and civil society workers it surveyed, only 44% said they planned to travel to China once coronavirus restrictions are lifted; 40% said they probably or definitely would not visit, while the rest were unsure. Rigorous testing and 20 million vaccinations a day might see Beijing ready to host the Winter Olympics 2022. Nicholas Thomas, a professor of health governance at the City University of Hong Kong, says that such strict measures may be necessary to protect Hong Kong citizens from a new outbreak, especially owing to the fact that much of the city remains vulnerable to infection. After being closed for three years, China will reopen its borders on January 8, 2023, and will eliminate the mandatory quarantine requirement for entry into the country, according to reports from the South China Morning Post. Updated: 12:08pm, 24 Jul, 2021. Perhaps China wants to protect domestic drugmakers from competition, suggest foreign diplomats. If the pandemic continues for a long time, even the strictest prevention and control methods will not work forever, Zhong said. Its much more unsettling to think you could be thrown in jail as a hostage simply because you hold an American passport, the way Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were thrown in jail as Canadian hostages, in retaliation for something my government did that the Chinese regime didnt like, wrote James Mann, a journalist and author on China. Theres no plan of a specific date or anything at all.. At the time of writing, eight positive cases have been detected, including other port workers and their family members, none of whom have so much as run a fever. The city government doesnt want to be seen as pursuing an opposing policy as the rest of China, Thomas said. This makes it hard for the party to reopen borders. The problem is that opening the borders is hard to reconcile with Chinese peoples expectations of zero Covid cases. Chinese officials are looking with considerable interest at how herd immunity works in highly vaccinated countries with different combinations of vaccines, such as in Israel and Seychelles. Even if none of these reasons seems urgent, there is something of a hard deadline for substantial reopening to take place in time for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022. See how we collect data and find out why not all countries are included in the statistics. Beijing is planning to keep its pandemic border restrictions in place for at least another year as officials fret over the emergence of new variants and a calendar of sensitive events, according to people familiar with the matter, despite a coronavirus vaccination campaign that has topped one billion doses. Almost two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the worlds major business hubs including New York, London and Paris are reopening as travel restrictions relax and daily life resumes. Data from travel and analytics firm Cirium showed airlines are increasing flights between the United Kingdom and the U.S. by 21% this month over last month. .css-16c7pto-SnippetSignInLink{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;}Sign In, Copyright 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved, adidas Promo Code - $30 Off 1000s of Best-Sellers + Free Shipping, 60% off running shoes and apparel at Nike without a promo code, Save 15% on orders of $100+ with Kohl's coupon. Discovery Company. On Tuesday, Lam pointed to economic expansion in the first quarter to argue the city had not suffered badly from the tight restrictions. However, some restrictions are still in place. California: Do Not Sell My Personal Information, Ten business trends for 2023, and forecasts for 15 industries, The weather system that influences the world. Fears among investors are growing over a debt crisis that has engulfed one of Chinas largest property developers. But long before the warning, some Americans and other Westerners with long-lasting professional ties with China had already grown wary of visiting both mainland China and Hong Kong. The companys problems are many. If they change their mind, that will be a sign that the party is finally ready to abandon its zero-covid policy. Chinese officials grumble that America and the European Union have yet to approve a vaccine from China. Surveys by the American and European chambers of commerce suggested the number of foreign residents in China had fallen by 30% in 18 months. Some provinces require additional quarantine upon arrival. The government plans to achieve two negative tests from each person in the entire population of about 240,000 from the local Yantian region, before declaring the crisis over. State media describe foreigners, notably Americans, as too selfish, science-scorning and obsessed with individual rights to control the virus. But in order to err on the side of caution, and to prevent the spread of the disease, we have to [impose restrictions]Everything we are doing is to protect Hong Kong from another major outbreak.. At the news conference on Tuesday, Lam argued that many Hong Kong-based companies do business in the mainland, which made the border reopening critical to the economy. A single case can lead to city-wide testing and lockdown. Many have waited for more than a year to reunite with loved ones. Lots of Chinese are cross about a lack of overseas praise for their countrys strict approach. Locally made jabs have been given to two-fifths of the population, with assurances that they are highly effective. Copyright The Economist Newspaper Limited 2023. Regional lockdowns have been imposed every time there are new outbreaks of the virus. Moreover, China is in a better position than most countries to stay closed: its exports have barely been affected, and foreign direct investment is higher than it was before the pandemic. Though not a scientific survey, the results nevertheless suggest a significant shift in attitudes among a group of prominent figures in the China field, most of whom would almost certainly have planned to travel to the country a year or two ago as part of their professional routines, it said. Evergrande said Monday that it would take legal action against the creditor for demanding the court freeze its assets. In order to open its borders, China will first have to vaccinate its population. This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline "Turning inward", Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents, Under Xi Jinping, he has had little chance to shine, But Chinas leaders are treading carefully for now, The countrys government is organised in a way that could help, Published since September 1843 to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.. https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-to-keep-covid-19-border-restrictions-for-another-year-11624361777. Sign up here. Footage broadcast by state news agency Xinhua and shared widely online shows passengers in Zhengzhou trapped inside a flooded subway car, packed tightly together as the water climbs higher. Many Chinese are proud rightfully of Chinas ability to swiftly tame the outbreak, despite its initial mishandling. On Monday, the city increased the mandatory quarantine on Hong Kong residents returning from 16 countries, including the U.S., to 21 days. Travelers at Shenzhen Bay Immigration Control Point in Hong Kong on September 15. All Rights Reserved. But even the largest such businesses struggle to obtain visas for the families of their expatriate staff. However, the Omicron variant has proven challenging, and the government is still pursuing a zero Covid strategy. The bottom line is that businesses should be aware that the risks faced in mainland China are now increasingly present in Hong Kong, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. On Sunday, a member of the Executive Council told local media the city might not be able to open its China border until February. There are a few reasons why Hong Kong has made this decision, said Nicholas Thomas, an associate professor at the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong. China has tripled its daily COVID-19 vaccine rollout in June, inoculating 44% of its population with at least one dose, but its health experts warn against a quick border reopening, citing an . News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. China has maintained a strict zero-Covid approach, even as many other countries transition to living with the coronavirus. But hoping that mainland China will reopen its borders may ultimately leave Hong Kong effectively sealed off from the rest of the world for the foreseeable future. The fired Google engineer who thought its A.I. vaccination programme. All rights reserved. Unlike smaller economies that rely heavily on cross-border capital flows, outside talent or international tourism, Covid-19border restrictions have not stopped China from roaring back into growth. 2021. Updated Beijing has charged them with espionage, but most outside of China see their detention as retaliation for Mengs arrest and a bargaining chip to help leverage her release. Loved ones have missed holidays, birthdays and funerals while nonessential air travel was barred, and they are now eager to reconnect. At that time, Chinas top respiratory expert, Zhong Nanshan, revealed that the number inoculated was 3.56%, a proportion set to rise to 40% by the end of June. China May Have More to Lose If Borders Open to Tourists. China closed its borders to nearly all travelers in March 2020, when the pandemic started spreading throughout Europe. IT IS BECOMING clear that China will not, or perhaps cannot, re-open its borders soon. Most people in China would happily stay in this parallel universe for another five years. For many, the continued detention of the two Canadian Michaels will likely serve as a chilling reminder of the risks associated with visiting China, even after it reopens its borders to the world. May 14, 2021, 2:57 AM UTC. The lowest estimate was 6.6 billion USD per year, with a disclaimer that it could well be double that figure. 2. Meanwhile, mainland China has yet to approve any foreign vaccines, including the most effective ones that use mRNA gene technology. Will Chinas solitude come to an end? China is the last large country in the world with a zero-covid policy. The downgrade reflects Evergrandes weakened funding access and reduced liquidity buffer given its large debt maturities in the coming 12-18 months amid the tight credit environment in China and volatility in the capital markets, Cedric Lai, a vice president and senior analyst at Moodys, said in a statement at the time.