South Korean and Japanese coronavirus travel restrictions 'excessive', China's foreign minister says
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.
Speaking in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on his first trip to Africa as foreign minister, Qin outlined for the first time the reasons behind China's suspension of the issuance of short-term visas to South Korean and Japanese nationals from Tuesday.
"I think Tokyo and Seoul have taken discriminatory, unscientific and excessive measures in dealing with Chinese citizens travelling to Japan and South Korea," he told Phoenix TV. "It has caused difficulties and obstacles in personnel exchanges between the two countries, so we, the Chinese side, have a reason to respond."
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On Tuesday, the Chinese embassies in Seoul and Tokyo announced that Beijing would stop issuing short-term visas for South Korean and Japanese citizens entering China for business, tourism, medical treatment, transit and general private affairs purposes, in response to travel restrictions the two countries placed on Chinese travellers after a surge in Covid-19 infections in China.
On Wednesday, Beijing also suspended the issuance of port visas to travellers from the two countries and ruled out visa-free transits for them.
In a phone call with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin on Monday, Qin expressed his concerns about Seoul's travel restrictions on Chinese travellers and urged South Korea to uphold an "objective and scientific attitude".
Park responded that South Korea's pandemic measures were based on "scientific evidence."
Foreign Minister Qin Gang addresses the inauguration ceremony of the African Centres for Disease Control headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Wednesday. Photo: AFP alt=Foreign Minister Qin Gang addresses the inauguration ceremony of the African Centres for Disease Control headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Wednesday. Photo: AFP>
Seoul imposed travel restrictions on travellers from China earlier this month, requiring negative PCR test results for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 before and after they enter South Korea, and also suspended the issuance of short-term visas to Chinese visitors, including tourist visas.
Incheon International Airport was also designated as the only destination for flights arriving from China, ruling out arrivals in Busan, Daegu and Jeju.
Tokyo requires visitors from China to provide negative Covid-19 test results before boarding flights to Japan, but has not suspended the issuance of short-term visas.
Flights from mainland China to Japan are only allowed to land at Narita and Haneda airports in Tokyo, Kansai International Airport in Osaka, and Chubu airport in Nagoya.
"It is regrettable that China unilaterally has taken visa suspension action for reasons other than steps for the coronavirus," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference on Wednesday.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, on a visit to London, also called China's move "extremely regrettable" on Wednesday and said it had "no apparent relation to precautions against the coronavirus".
Seoul also described China's action as regrettable and said the government had conveyed its position to Beijing through diplomatic channels.
"The government's measures to strengthen quarantine are based on scientific and objective grounds," South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk said at a press briefing on Tuesday. "We will continue to communicate closely while conveying our government's position to the Chinese side once again."
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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