China ‘hypocritical’ on Covid testing requirement

Australians will need to take a PCR test ahead of going to China when its borders reopen next week, prompting accusations the communist nation was being hypocritical.

Passengers of a flight from Beijing leave the terminal after landing at the Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport in Barajas, on the outskirts of Madrid.

Australians will need to take a PCR test ahead of going to China when its borders reopen next week, prompting accusations the communist nation was being hypocritical for condemning countries that are adopting the exact same requirements on Chinese travellers.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior fellow Peter Jennings said he was not surprised about the double standards being displayed by Beijing, after a Chinese government spokesman said the regime was preparing to retaliate against nations that were forcing its citizens to undertake a Covid test ahead of entry.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior fellow Peter Jennings says he was not surprised about the double standards being displayed by Beijing.

“That is very much how they operate, it is always to shift the blame on to another country,” Mr Jennings said.

“We shouldn’t be taking any notice of it.”

Last week, China’s National Health Commission said international visitors would no longer need to quarantine on arrival.

However, the requirement for travellers to take a PCR test 48 hours ahead of arriving in China will remain.

Jim Chalmers said he was not “not especially” concerned about Beijing’s threats to retaliate against Australia and other nations that have decided to temporarily screen Chinese travellers.

“If they take any steps in response to the responsible steps we’ve taken, then that will be a matter for them. I’m not going to pre-empt or guess what they might do,” the Treasurer told ABC radio.

Dr Chalmers said there was “lot of concern around the global health community and the global economy about the transparency and quality of data that we see out of China on Covid”.

“It’s really important to get as much transparency as we can so that we can understand the implications for us here in Australia,” Dr Chalmers said.

Lowy Institute senior fellow Richard McGregor said China’s threats were probably aimed at the domestic audience and would unlikely amount to much.

“I don’t think, at the moment, this has any large implications for the bilateral relationship,” Mr McGregor said. “There are many countries that are asking this of China and it is not an onerous requirement. The Chinese have been getting tested nearly everyday for over three years.”

The European Union on Wednesday was moving to set co-ordinated control on passengers coming from China, after EU member states France, Spain and Italy unveiled independent testing requirements.

But New Zealand announced it would buck the trend and instead implement a voluntary testing system for Chinese travellers.

New Zealand Science Minister Ayesha Verrall – an infectious-diseases physician – said Chinese travellers posed a ““minimal public health threat”.

“(Chinese) visitors won’t contribute significantly to our Covid case numbers meaning entry restrictions aren’t required or justified,” she said.

Responding to China’s threats of retaliation, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the testing requirement was “an approach that is based solely and exclusively on science”.

Back in Australia, opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the government’s handling of the Covid outbreak in China was “perplexing”.

“It is so perplexing and concerning that Anthony Albanese doesn’t seem to be fronting the cameras or hitting the airwaves himself to explain why they’ve ignored the advice of the chief medical officer,” Senator Birmingham told 2GB radio.

“Why it is that they have flip flopped in their position over the course of the last week or so, and just what the actual rationale for it is, because the story just seems to keep changing.”