Radio Free Asia has a disturbing new report on outbound travel from China — a “blanket ban on ‘non-essential’” travel — as the Chinese Communist Party’s Covid-zero campaign intensifies:
China on Thursday announced it would place strict curbs on “non-essential” travel overseas by its nationals, amid a surge in immigration inquiries after weeks of grueling mass testing, lockdowns and forcible mass transportation to quarantine camps.
“On the afternoon of May 10, the National Immigration Administration [ruling Chinese Communist] Party committee held a meeting on strengthening disease control and prevention,” the administration said via its Weibo account on Thursday.
“According to the requirements of the meeting . . . it will be necessary to strictly implement entry and exit policies, strictly restrict non-essential departures of Chinese citizens, and strictly approve and issue exit and entry documents,” it said.
The RFA report also shed light on the situation in Shanghai, which has been ground zero for the latest phase of the party’s brutal Covid policy. While residents there continue to push back against a forcible testing and quarantine regime, there are some indications, amid plummeting positivity rates, that a softening of the policy could be on the way, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, in another report, RFA noted that the authorities in Guangzhou were clipping the passports of certain travelers returning to China, thereby banning them from future international travel.
On Twitter, Human Rights Watch’s Yaiqu Wang pointed to a worrying precedent from the recent past:
To those Han Chinese who are freaked out by the passport announcement, a friendly (or ominous) reminder: in Tibet and Xinjiang, it all started with restrictions on passports. Read @hrw reports back in 2015 (https://t.co/FF0FosbTRo) and 2016 (https://t.co/MKM69WZv8J):
— Yaqiu Wang 王亚秋 (@Yaqiu) May 12, 2022