Beijing slams Japan & S Korea's 'discriminatory' measures targeting China amid COVID surge

The COVID-19 spat between China on one side and Japan and South Korea on the other has further elongated after China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Wednesday that “discriminatory, unscientific and excessive” measures by South Korea and Japan had triggered Beijing’s retaliatory visa ban on the two nations. 

Qin was on his first trip to Africa as foreign minister when he spoke to Phoenix TV addressing the reasons behind China's suspension of the issuance of short-term visas to South Korean and Japanese nationals from Tuesday, reported South China Morning Post. “I think Tokyo and Seoul have taken discriminatory, unscientific and excessive measures in dealing with Chinese citizens travelling to Japan and South Korea,” Qin said in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. “It has caused difficulties and obstacles in personnel exchanges between the two countries, so we, the Chinese side, have a reason to respond.”

Japan and South Korea defended their public health restrictions on travelers from China on Wednesday, a day after China stopped issuing new visas in both countries in apparent retaliation. South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said he finds it “significantly regrettable” that China stopped issuing short-term visas to South Koreans and called for China to align its pandemic steps with “scientific and objective facts.” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno criticized China for “one-sidedly” restricting visa issuances to Japanese nationals “because of a reason that is not related to COVID-19 measures.”

Chinese travellers in Japan & South Korea test positive

According to South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency, about 17% of the 2,550 short-term travelers from China from January 2 to January 10 have tested positive. Japan had to take temporary measures to avoid a rapid inflow of infections because of China’s spreading outbreaks and lack of transparency about the situation, reported AP citing Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno.

According to health ministry statistics, about 8% of 4,895 passengers of all nationalities tested positive upon arrival from December 30 to January 5, and most of the infected were Chinese or those who had recently been in China. Some Japanese media recently showed Chinese tourists at pharmacies buying anti-fever medicine. The sudden spread of COVID-19 in China last month led to a run on medications and temporary shortages.

(with AP inputs)