China bans entry of foreigners and overseas citizens- a detailed study

The Chinese Virus 2019 originated in China but at present, the epicenter of the disease is not China but Europe and United States. There is a huge population of Chinese people who live in the US for either Job or educational purposes. They want to return to their home country. So there is a sudden increase in traffic which led the Chinese government to cancel visas. As a result of this, no one can enter China after 28th March 2020. There is a complete ban on foreign visitors plus the Chinese non-residents of China.

Once a week, flights have been allowed from each country but with a few restrictions; flights shouldn't be fully loaded due to social distancing norms (75% full). China said it is being done due to rapid spread of Covid-19 across the world. As no foreign visitors would plan a tour now, the decision won't affect them. It's only the Chinese airlines  which are flying between the routes. The entry for people with diplomatic, service, courtesy (ones called by governments) and C- visas ( issued for crew members) will not be affected. Visas issued upto 28th march have been cancelled. But people can apply for new visas after 28th for economic, trade, scientific or technological activities or for emergency humanitarian needs can apply at the Chinese embassies or consultates. 

Decline of cases in China

Significant number of Chinese people live in Thailand (93,49,900), Malaysia(66,42,000), US(50,25,817) etc. There is a trend in China to bring foreign degrees likewe have in India. In 2018, 6,62,000 went abroad for educational purposes. According to Chinese government, 40% people who returned to China in March are students. Beijing is discouraging it's 11 million Chinese people from returning to China. This is a U turn in Chinese policies (nothing less than hypocrisy). When in January ending, Corona was at it's peak, countries like India, US, Russia had cancelled flights with China, China responded by criticizing them for such a measure. Trump had cancelled entry of people into the US who had gone to China in the last 14 days. China said such measures would create panic among people. But now China is doing the same. The reason for this U turn is that 600 cases of China in the last few days are imported ones. From the second week of March, they had made it compulsory for every one returning to China to stay in quarantine for 14 days. Beijing started it from 11th February. These quarantine centres were basically hotels converted for this purpose. But the ministry asked the people to pay for this.

There is a reason what is pulling Chinese citizens back to China. It's their health care. It's free of cost. But it's not the case with the US. But the medical costs of those who have got infected overseas won't be covered under this scheme.

Still Chinese people are rushing to China for two reasons:

1. It's their home country.

2. People think western governments are still not serious about the pandemic. Example- US where lockdown is still not announced inspite if the huge number of cases.

Let's look at the current situation of China:

There have been 81,340 confirmed cases in China and 3,292 deaths. China reported it's first locally-transmitted corona case in 3days on friday, almost all it's new cases now come from abroad.

China is returning to normalcy now. Factories are going to restart. Some cities like Shanghai and Hangzhou have started opening tourist attractions, restaurants and gyms. Metro service has started in Wuhan.