China lashed out on Tuesday against COVID-19 controls on passengers from the Asian country and threatened to take action against the nations involved, including the United States and several European countries.
"We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries against China
lack scientific basis
, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a press conference.
“We strongly oppose attempts to manipulate the measures against COVID-19 for political purposes and we will take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity,” it added.
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Australia and Canada this week joined the growing list of countries requiring travelers from China to pass a COVID-19 test before boarding their flight, as the country battles a coronavirus outbreak after sharply easing restrictions. that had been in force for almost the entire pandemic.
The United States, the United Kingdom, India, Japan and several European Union countries
also imposed tougher measures against COVID-19 on Chinese travelers amid concerns about the lack of data on infections in the country and fears of its spread. of new variants.
China, which for most of the pandemic adopted a “zero COVID” strategy with tough restrictions to eradicate the virus, abruptly relaxed the protocol in December.
The Chinese authorities had earlier announced that, as of January 8, travelers from abroad would no longer have to quarantine upon arrival in the country, paving the way for people to leave the country again.