China is to resume issuing visas to foreign tourists for the first time since the Covid pandemic broke out three years ago. BBC News has more.
The major easing of restrictions comes after Beijing declared victory over the virus and retreated from a zero-Covid strategy that has hurt its economy.
From March 15th, foreign offices can process applications for Chinese visas.
Visa-free entry will also resume in Hainan Island and Shanghai for cruise ships.
Tour groups from Hong Kong and Macau will also regain their visa-free privilege.
In addition, valid visas issued before China closed to the world on March 28th 2020 will be honoured again.
The removal of the last cross-border restrictions imposed to tackle Covid marks a major step towards the resumption of normal life in post-pandemic China.
Tens of millions of international visitors came to China each year prior to the pandemic, and its tourism industry has been hard hit by strict anti-Covid measures.
Interesting to note how late China was in closing its borders in 2020 – by March 28th most of the world had already shut out tourists. A reminder that while the country pioneered lockdown measures in Wuhan during January and February 2020, the wider country was never placed under the kind of nationwide measures that we experienced in the West, and even the borders were not closed until after everyone else had already done so. An expression, perhaps, of the idea that China’s ‘targeted’ measures in Hubei and other affected areas had successfully ‘contained’ the virus, leading to a reluctance to impose wider measures. It’s also a reflection I think of the still unexplained fact that East Asia (outside Wuhan and one or two other hotspots) suffered very little from Covid in the first wave, or indeed until Omicron arrived in late 2021.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/chinese-lockdowns-expand-raising
Growing lockdowns in China have me believing more and more that the country isn’t exactly crestfallen about the supply chain crisis it is creating for the rest of the world.
Days ago, I wrote about suspicions I had about China’s latest round of Covid lockdowns. In that piece, I drew the conclusion that the country’s “Covid Zero” plan is irrational and egregious, and that China’s lockdowns may have to do with something more than Covid.
The three scenarios I floated for the potential reason China was “overshooting the mark” with its draconian lockdowns were:
4. Winnie the Flu can only cling to his Imperial power if he forces his vassals to acknowledge that his Zero Covid plan is achievable and beneficial.
Reality has nothing to do with it. He will cull as many as necessary until the survivors thank him for saving them from the coofs. It’s simply an exercise in individual power, and submission.
Spreading lockdowns elsewhere hasn’t yet destroyed the west so now it’s time to cut off supply?
https://schiffgold.com/key-gold-news/americans-spending-more-getting-less-and-borrowing-more-to-pay-for-it/
Americans Spending More, Getting Less and Borrowing More to Pay for It
Going for zero Covid is as unlikely as it is stupid and the Chinese are not stupid. Is China dealing with a new and more sinister biological agent and if so where did it come from?
Someone needs to tell them that Covid is just a scratchy throat for a few days. Not the bubonic plague.
Are you kidding? I’ve not personally encountered anyone with symptoms that severe.
Let’s face it, this is so.much fun to watch.
If you like seeing people being licked up, denied fresh air, starved, tyrannised and terrorised, their children taken away and their pets beaten to death, then yes, it’s a bundle of laughs.
Nope. That part isn’t so much fun.
The part that is really fun is seeing the CCP struggling to impose zero-covid and pissing off the population in the process.
Come on, I can’t be the only one experiencing schadenfreude, can I?
I know I’m not the only one hoping for a popular revolt against the CCP. If that were to happen (unlikely as it may be) it would almost make the whole coronavirus crisis worthwhile.
Personally, I was hoping for a popular revolt in France yesterday, closely followed by one in the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA, Australia, NZ and other signatories to the WEF Great Reset.
Moi aussi
I’m opposed to repression, no matter who imposes it – but “popular revolt” is no picnic. In the first instance, repression tends to intensify.
Most popular revolts fail. The ruling order punishes enough to provide object lessons; and makes adjustments, which might be of benefit to enough people to keep the population relatively quiet for decades. A few highly-placed heads might even roll, but very few.
I have sympathies for those revolts and those with the courage to try them. But the idea is a very sombre one. Many, many people will die. They might believe it was worth it and we might remember them with respect – but it is nothing like an amusing or entertaining prospect.
All seems to be coming together nicely. Surely more people are going to start questioning the official narrative? Although most people still believe you need 10 shots – a year!
Would you begrudge them their toasters?
I’d imagine that many who get close to the mythical free toaster prize will be smelling mythical burnt toast before winning the toaster.
Although there was the Indian fellow in Oz who agreed to get jabbed for others for money. He got ten injections I believe.
There was that Russian comedian who claimed to have had 8 “vaccinations” (coincidentally he died recently).
excellent
Ukraine is just the icing on the recession cake.
The root is lockdowns and Biden’s money printing splurge. Western governments, with a few noble exceptions, bankrupted their economies long before Shanghai.
Modern Monetary Theory (print! Print! Print!) Is about to be exposed.
The China crisis will now tip the world into a ddepression simular the 1930s America.
China was hosting the Winter Olympics where countries around the world were competing who all embraced lockdowns.
China had little choice but to ensure the perceived safety of their Olympic guests.
In his recent speech, Mr Xi said China’s zero Covid policy had withstood the test of the Winter Olympics.
Shanghai is home to many US corporations and financiers and some suggest that it is from these US influences that Shanghai had draconian lockdowns.
More importantly Chinese officials have accused the US of releasing SARS-CoV-2 in China as a bioweapon. Other cities in China may follow suit with lockdowns if they are of the mindset that they are under biological attack by the US.
Also, Russia has raised concerns at the number of US funded biolabs in Ukraine and the research into targeted attacks against specific Slavic genomes.
Russia suffered many more deaths than they should have done from their strains of SARS-CoV-2.
Perhaps their embrace of lockdowns, QR codes, health passes etc. was a direct result of their belief that their country and people were under biological attack.
Another state that has accused the US of attacking them with SARS-CoV-2 is Iran whose leaders died disproportionally from Covid.
Perhaps the three biggest enemies of the US have cause for concern.
The actions by China and Russia to control their citizens by lockdowns and technology may be a result of them wanting to monitor their citizens, particular the Atlanticists, and the activities of foreign influence within their countries to stop fifth column infiltration by the US and other Western foreign powers particularly from future biological attacks.
I think you’ve been reading too many comics.
Nah. They’re just people in power doing what people in power do when their power goes unchecked. And when they have brand new, shiny technologies with which to project their power and control.
Thanks GHF. You’ve raised issues which I don’t believe should be dismissed out of hand as digressions from anybody’s approved narrative; and you’ve done so in the eminently reasonable manner of making suggestions people might like to consider.
So, I ask this with respect – do you have any sources for this?
“some suggest that it is from these US influences that Shanghai had draconian lockdowns.”
The events in Shanghai concern me for many reasons, and I’d like to look at more information and ideas about them.
Here’s the link.
https://thewallwillfall.org/2022/04/19/shanghai-covid-lockdown-who-is-behind-it/
How much faith should we ‘conspiracy theorists’ place in the various stories of US ‘agents’ collecting DNA samples from the ethnic groups who make up their perceived enemies, in order to tailor viruses against those ethnic groups.
For instance, is there any sound data that suggests that the Chinese were/are more seriously impacted by SARS1 and SARS2 ?
If Chinese were/are more seriously impacted by Sars-Cov-2, then we would have seen evidence of that in Australia, Canada, and in other places where many ethnic Chinese live, not to mention Singapore,
They weren’t.
But countries like the UK where we’ve got a lot of darkies and pakis had a lot of deaths in those groups. It is a fact that they have smaller lung capacity
The assumption in the question however, was that Chinese might be being targeted ethnically, rather than those other groups you mentioned.
Not sure why they’d target themselves! They made the thing
Weren’t Americans also involved?
There was the South African doctor who noticed the original strain seemed to affect blacks, the Delta affected asians and Omicron had most effect on whites and whatxhe called Muslims, by which I assume he meant middle eastern.
So who knows?
Dr David Grimes made the more solid observation that, according to the BMJ obituaries over many years, black and brown doctors lived much less long than white doctors. He considered that because all doctors were ‘high status’ individuals, the difference was probably due to greater vitamin D deficiency in BAME doctors.
Low vitamin D has also been linked to poor COVID outcomes.
I’m *white* – although I tan easily – and I can’t make enough vitamin D in the UK climate, even in summer. Having discovered this a few years ago, I take a supplement all year. Imagine the problem if your skin is even more permanently tanned than mine.
There are even significant vitamin D deficiencies in Australia – because we’re all urged to cover ourselves up for fear of skin cancer (a quite reasonable fear).
I’ve read that – along with the suggestions that certain populations might have had a degree of natural immunity because of pre-existing exposure.
It’s the talk of genetically engineering for ethnic groups that I find alarming. If that’s possible, we’re in for very unpleasant times indeed – I mean, worse than what we’ve already endured.
I’ve not seen an ethnic break-down on this; just ones for age and residency (not even for prior health conditions in Australia’s governmental statistics).
Yes – I’ve heard about this, and welcome any information regarding how possible it is to tailor viruses against ethnic groups. I can believe that there are people nasty enough to want to do it.
I’ve not yet seen the people falling over dead in the Street they had for Covid I …how are the psyops film makers going to create a mass scare in the west if they don’t put some effort into it?
The Chinese lockdowns say more about the health of the state than the health of the population.
Agree 100%. Not just the Chinese lockdowns, mind you, all of them.
Lockdown was based on misinformation and lies
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/lockdown-was-based-on-misinformation-and-lies/
John Hollaway
Stand for freedom with our Yellow Boards By The Road
Monday 25th April 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Yellow Boards
Junction A332 Windsor Rd &
A330 Winkfield Road,
ASCOT SL5 7UL
Wednesday 27th April 4pm to 5pm
Yellow Boards
Junction B3408 London Road &
Wokingham Road
Bracknell RG42 4FH
Stand in the Park Sundays from 10am – make friends & keep sane
Wokingham Howard Palmer Gardens
(Cockpit Path car park free on Sunday)
Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
Bracknell
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Perhaps it’s co-ordinated? China promised Russia to mess up the global economy even further, relatively China will be OK.
That would be too far-fetched wouldn’t it, Down-ticker?
I have no doubt that if the CCP could do something to screw up the global economy and make it their gain, they would.
But I don’t think this is it.
Good as the Chinese leadership is at making everyone believe they are super competent and very clever, they’re actually pretty stupid. They have just amassed so much power that they are able to make themselves look good and take credit for what goes well while blaming others for the things that go wrong.
But you can see the signs of their stupidity. For example, the one-child policy is about to turn into a demographic disaster for them. The pollution in China’s cities is beyond horrific.
For some reason that I don’t fully understand, the extreme brutality of their policies seems to attract admiration. I suppose because strength in whatever form produces awe.
The west is at least neo in it’s neo-feudalism, the east is just pure feudalism with a veneer of marxism.
What attracts admiration in our elites is the obedience of their population, not the policies as such.
They seek a more docile population. Plenty of them being invited to our shores along with Muslims who tend to bow to authority too.
Unfortunately, there are people who believe that those who have “amassed so much power” are ipso facto “super competent and very clever”!
I don’t know, but I find it odd that someone should be downticked for making a suggestion.
I’m a great fan of “Perhaps”: it’s an invitation to thought.
It’s only taken 15 months to go from “Build Back Better” to “there will be food and energy shortages.”
Anyone else find that a tad odd?
If not, perhaps it’s a case of FaceCrook, Titter and TikTok being your mains sources of info? If so then you may not be aware that the current fiat-funney-munney-monetary system is in its death throes, which GloboCap requires for the looming social credit scores and CBDCs to be inflicted across the G7.
But back to Chinaah – said in a Trump style cackle voice… here’s revelatory plunging tweet.
https://twitter.com/xinwendiaocha/status/1517334758266601472?s=20&t=ml7WTJH_-lI6Dx8B9aRxyQ
The tragic end of a mentally broken truck driver who’d been incarcerated in his vehicle cab for weeks. A visible manifestation of what’s termed over here as the New NormaL. China has been in free-fall economic collapse for some time now… and rather than suffer increasing loss of face and relinquish any of its darconian social digital matrix control the CCP has chosen to starve its people to death.
How long before we’re into a similar zero carbon lockstep/lockdown phase over here in the allegedly freedom loving first world West?
The pane e acqua foodbank queues in Milan right now, now in Aprile 2022 are already pretty ugly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJFZf1_0jU
I can only imagine more average poor folk everywhere being increasingly similarly bridge driven and flung dispatched.
It is getting harder to avoid concluding there is a concerted attempt to destroy the global economy and get us all living in caves again, half-starved.
I’ll entertain arguments to the contrary.
China is the workshop of the world. Or at least the workshop of the UK. It’s not easy to buy much that isn’t made in China. Just as the West, especially Germany, has allowed itself to be too reliant on Russian fuel, so it is also far too exposed to the vagaries of China. It is far more extreme that the over-exposure to Japan in the seventies and eighties as well as putting us in thrall to a hostile power.
Pretty bloody stupid really.
Easily fixed though.
When China stops sending us our shoes, then we’ll know the CCP is serious.
Invest in local shoe manufacturers which use locally sourced materials, maybe?
For my outdoor gear, I’ve been using Sheffield’s Buffalo for over twenty years. Not sure how their supply chain depends on China, though…
UK manufactured goods?! As far fetched as…well, shit from China
“When China stops sending us our shoes, then we’ll know the CCP is serious”.
primarks knackered then if that happened
You’ll own diddly squat and be dead
China’s economy was circling the drain anyways, at least this way they can blame ‘muh virus’.
Covid is so last year. The sequel in the Project Fear franchise is a new mystery virus that causes hepatitis. Doubtless there will be test and a vaccine for it once it is released. I doubt it will be such a box-office success as Covid or even Tamagotchi, even if the test kits come as free toys in cereal boxes.