China opens its borders for foreign travellers

Chinese health authorities lift Covid-19 quarantine requirements on international arrivals starting from 8th January 2023, taking one of the country’s biggest steps to ease restrictions since the pandemic began early 2020.

After releasing all restrictions in Hong Kong as a test just a few weeks earlier, it was time to release all measures across the whole of China. On a daily basis we are touch with our Chinese colleagues and business relations in various regions in China. The number of infections is very high, but generally speaking the situation seems to be under control, with some exceptions. Most people do self-tests and, in case of infection, they just stay at home without reporting their infection. The Chinese people have also been storing medication in preparation for the expected contagion.

It is difficult to predict how the pandemic will develop in China in the following weeks and months. In several cities it can already be assumed that the peak of infections is behind us. Given the milder nature of the omicron variant, the expected deaths will mainly be people with underlying diseases. China is continuing to push vaccination and has already gained a lot of experience in the treatment of corona patients with a mix of Western and Chinese medication.

Obviously, after three difficult years, the big majority of Chinese people and all foreign business people welcome this change in policy. All Chinese people hope to spend Chinese New Year with their families. Given the resilience of the Chinese people, we are confident that China will soon recover from the economic problems and things will get back to normal soon. We are looking forward to travel back to China and meet with our friends and business partners face to face again. Please check our recent article about this topic at the following link.

Recently an article was published about this topic on the website of the Belgian Radio and Television network VRT, with a quote by Bart Horsten. This article (in Dutch) can be checked here.