China aims to restrict travel abroad

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

It’s been more than two years since the countries around the world started shutting down their borders to visitors for curbing the spread of the pandemic. Now China, which is facing its worst outbreak of the pandemic, is considering a new approach.

From this time, “unnecessary” overseas travel by Chinese citizens will belimited, which is meant torestrictits residents from bringing the virus home from other countries. The policy was announced earlier this month, and this will make it tougher to obtain passports and other travel documents.

These are temporary measures to be taken away when China would decide that Covidno longer poses adanger. China’s recent verdict to cancel international sporting events which were slated for mid-2023 suggests that it won’t be next year. The government’s growing apprehension about talent and wealthrunning awayfrom China suggests that the regulations, in some way or the other, are expected to last much longer and become a kind of new butcontrolled normal.

The significances for China and the rest of the world would be deep. Before the Covid-19 pandemic made its presence felt, tourism and travel contributed more than 10% of global gross domestic product, and no country like China sent more travelers abroad. A long-standingdeterioration would upset businesses and economies that have come to rely on China. A younger, curious Chinese generation nurturing on travel would be stuck, and its expectations and living standards would be highly impacted.

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