The Chinese government is threatening countermeasures against countries imposing Covid-19 testing requirements on incoming passengers from China, including Canada.
“We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China lack scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Tuesday.
“We are firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate the COVID measures for political purposes and will take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity.”
According to the Associated Press, Mao stopped short of saying what measures China would take.
This week, Canada announced that travellers from China would require a negative Covid test for air travellers arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau.
The requirement will come into effect on Thursday for 30 days. The new requirement will apply to travellers aged two and older.
The restrictions come as China faces an outbreak after easing restrictions that have been in place since the pandemic began around three years ago in the country.
In a Dec. 31 news release, the federal government said the “temporary” measures are a response to the surge of Covid in China and “limited epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data.”
Last month, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said his party was considering calling for mandatory testing or vaccination.
“We will watch it very carefully, and [our position] will be based on science and numbers. We, as you recall, two years ago, originally said the border needed to be close to China after COVID began,” Poilievre said.
“The government refused to do so for, I think, over 60 days. We were listening to the data at that time, and we’re listening to it now.”
Australia also announced that Chinese passengers must undergo testing before boarding a flight. Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the tests.
“We are in our role; my government is in its role, protecting the French,” Borne said Tuesday.
Beginning Wednesday, anyone flying from China to France will have to present a negative virus test taken within the previous 48 hours and be subject to random testing on arrival.
The U.K. will also require that passengers from China take a covid test. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the requirement is for “collecting information” because Beijing isn’t sharing coronavirus data.
Health officials will test a sample of passengers when they arrive in the U.K., but he said no quarantine is required for those who test positive.
