China Now Wants the World to Live With the Virus
Ravaged by the virus, Beijing is hitting out at the very countries that could have provided a model for how to exit Covid Zero.
A test of wills.
Photographer: Jill Connelly/BloombergIn China’s binary view of the pandemic, there can be only zeros and ones — that is, Covid Zero or Covid for Everyone.
Having scrapped its pandemic policy in an abrupt about-face that it failed to warn the international community was coming, Beijing has now decided that attempts to limit the spread of the virus are unacceptable — even those over which it has no control. President Xi Jinping’s administration has now stopped issuing visas for South Korean and Japanese travelers, after those countries (among others) put in place new curbs when infections started surging through China. With Lunar New Year fast approaching and Chinese citizens able to leave their country for the first time in years, its neighbors have imposed testing requirements on travelers, with Seoul also halting the issuance of some short-term visas, and Japan looking to limit flights.