Leave your partner and children behind. Quarantine for up to one month. Get vaccinated with a Covid-19 vaccine from China if you can find one. Prepare yourself for an anal swab.
In recent years, people trying to go to China have encountered some of the world’s most formidable access borders. To stop the coronavirus, China bans tourists and short-term business travelers, and it sets strict standards for all other foreigners, even those who have lived there for years.
The restrictions hampered the operations of many companies, separated families and halted the lives of thousands of international students. Global companies say their foreign workers in the country have declined sharply.
In a time of tension with the United States and other countries, China is keeping itself safe from the pandemic. At the same time, it runs the risk of further isolating its economy, the second largest in the world, at a time when its major trading partners are emerging from their own self-imposed slumps.
“When it comes to measures that are draconian, you will deny the rights of people who are big China supporters and are not allowed to return to the country where they brought their home,” said Alexander Style, the British owner of ‘ a company in Shanghai that makes electric vehicle parts for export, who was forced to move to New Jersey with his family.
Other countries have their own travel restrictions, though few are as strict. The United States, for example, prohibits foreigners traveling directly from China unless they are green cardholders or certain immediate family members of U.S. citizens. It also bans foreigners leaving Europe, as well as Brazil and other countries.
Australia admits only a few hundred of its 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 restrictions to be crucial to its success in curbing the virus. Since the outbreak began, China has reported more than 101,000 cases of Covid. Although questions have been raised about the accuracy of the numbers, it is much lower than in the United States, where 29.8 million people tested positive for the virus. China’s strategy reflects its strengths and weaknesses.
China was the only major economy to grow last year. It knows that businesses will find a way to keep their Chinese operations going, with or without expatriates, and it bets they will come back if the pandemic eases. At the same time, China’s constraints highlight the inadequacy of vaccine deployment, which is sluggish compared to the United States, Britain and other countries.
Foreign officials believe China is likely to be one of the last countries in the world to reopen in full after the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, perhaps until next year. According to the business groups, China’s restrictions will mean significant delays in building large factories or selling orders.
In recent days, Chinese embassies in at least 50 countries have said that foreigners wishing to enter China can avoid a visa paper by using a Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by China. The government proposed the rule as a relief to its visa application procedures. But it does not help travelers from countries like the United States where Chinese vaccines are available.
‘It’s a kind of Catch-22,’ said Jeff Jolly, who has been trapped in the United States since July after leaving Shanghai, where he runs a language training center and academic consulting.
In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said: “We believe it is a sensible investigation into the facilitation of international travel once mass vaccination has been achieved.”
As more deadly and contagious virus variants have appeared in other countries over the past few months, China has introduced onerous new requirements.
At the end of last year, it actually stopped allowing anyone to bring a spouse or child to the country. Since January, travelers arriving in Beijing with countries with severe outbreaks in Beijing have had to undergo weekly swab anal tests while in quarantine, with fecal material tested for traces of the virus. The measure has sparked outrage from the United States and Japan.
Last month, the government announced that foreign and Chinese travelers coming from more than two dozen countries would have to go under the quarantine under the supervision of the employer for two weeks before they could even fly to China. Then, after landing, they were expected to drive for another two weeks in a quarantine facility by the government.
The number of foreign business executives in China has declined. A survey of 191 businesses in southern China by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that 70 percent had fewer than five foreign workers in China at the end of last year, compared with 33 percent a year earlier. The share of companies without expatriates rose to 28 percent, from 9 percent a year earlier.
Mr. Style, the owner of the electric vehicle parts business, said the Chinese visa process now benefits large companies that contribute a lot of tax revenue, not new businesses like its business. He said he had settled in the United States – his wife is an American – and did not plan to return to China anytime soon.
The Foreign Ministry said that China’s re-entry policy “treats all foreign personnel equally, and there is no so-called differential treatment.”
China’s restrictions are exacerbated by visa decisions and admission requirements, which may seem arbitrary to those seeking to return.
Glyn Wise, who taught English literature at an international school in Shanghai, was able to obtain a work visa from the Chinese embassy in London in October. But the agency that helped prepare his application later told him that Chinese border officials would not recognize the visa.
“Many times they change the rules about who they accept,” he said. Wise said. He said he was looking for jobs outside China.
But many others are still hopeful, and some have organized social media campaigns to draw attention to their plight.
Nearly 13,000 international students held outside China have signed an online petition urging Beijing to return, while others have launched a Twitter campaign called #TakeUsBackToChina.
Amanuel Tafese, an Ethiopian student enrolled at a university in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, said he had been trying to take his lessons online since being expelled from the country early last year. But he had to rent space to do so because there is no electricity or internet access at his family’s home, 280 km from the capital, Addis Ababa.
Mr. Tafese says he cannot get a job because he has no degree, and relies on his father’s small income to support himself.
“It made me depressed,” he said. Tafese written in an email.
China’s strict restrictions, including the recent ban on dependents, have also taken an emotional toll on some families who have been forced to live separately for months, in some cases more than a year.
In February last year, Jessie Astbury Allen took her two young daughters to England to await the outbreak while it was across China, hoping they would reunite with her husband in Shanghai by Easter.
It was a plan she would regret.
“I knew in my gut that we were doing the wrong thing, but it was too late,” she said, crying as she described how she felt when she landed at London Heathrow Airport.
Like many parents who handle a closure, Ms. Astbury Allen juggles the demands of her daughters’ online classes with her work as China director of a marketing and strategy firm 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. Me. Astbury Allen rushed to apply in October. But by the time she reached a visa center, the rules had already changed.
China announced on November 4 that it would temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners from Britain, even if they have visas or valid residence permits. It describes the move as a ‘temporary response’ as cases of Covid-19 increased in Britain.
The situation made Ms Astbury Allen feel overwhelmed. She is most concerned about the trauma her daughters are inflicting through this separation.
Her twelve-year-old, Livia, became depressed and hid under her blanket, refusing to leave her room for three days. When Mae, her usually cheerful 7-year-old, saw her mother crying last month, she became very upset and emotional, Ms. Astbury Allen said.
“I said, ‘Do you miss your father, honey?’ ‘s Mrs Astbury Allen said. And she said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘It’s OK. We miss him too. ‘”
Elsie Chen , Koraal Yang and Claire Fu contributed research.