COVID vaccine: China will ease restrictions for visitors—if they get Chinese vaccines

China’s government is planning to ease requirements for some foreign travelers under one condition: They get vaccinated with a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine.

On Monday, the Chinese embassy in the U.S. issued a statement saying it would provide “visa facilitation” for people in the U.S. who get vaccinated with Chinese COVID-19 vaccines. The policy, effective Monday, is aimed at resuming “people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries,” the statement said, and would allow for foreigners injected with Chinese vaccines to enter China from abroad, provided they were permanent residents of China, family members of Chinese citizens, or wanted to travel to China for business purposes.

Recently, China has allowed foreigners to enter the country only if they have valid residence permits or were coming to attend funerals of immediate family members. The new vaccine policy expands who can qualify for visas, like business travelers and those visiting relatives, and cuts down on paperwork for those who already qualified.

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The notice said that after entering China, visitors would still need to abide by China’s quarantine rules, which currently require that anyone entering China undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine. At the same time, the notice seemed to overlook the fact that no Chinese-made vaccines have been approved in the U.S.

Chinese embassies in Japan, Israel, Italy, Thailand, Pakistan, and the Philippines have issued similar notices, but only some of the countries have approved Chinese COVID-19 vaccines.

“Our proposal to facilitate the travel of those who have been inoculated with Chinese vaccines is made after thoroughly considering the safety and efficacy of Chinese vaccines,” Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Last week, China launched a new digital vaccine passport—called an “international travel health certificate”—for its 1.6 billion citizens. In the launch, foreign minister Wang Yi said that vaccine records would be digitally stored and accessible on WeChat, a social messaging app owned by Tencent, and that China would use the system to negotiate bilateral travel deals with other countries.

The relaxing of visa requirements for those inoculated with Chinese-made vaccines appears to be China’s first step in getting other countries to recognize its vaccine passport scheme. But the visa policy sparked speculation that China is using the vaccine passport as another means to promote Chinese vaccines.

On Tuesday, a reporter asked Zhao whether China’s new visa requirements, and its newly launched digital vaccine passport program, is aimed at promoting the use of Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines in other countries.

Zhao said that China’s visa policies were “not linked to the recognition of Chinese vaccines,” and reiterated that China is ready to discuss “mutual recognition” of COVID-19 vaccines with other countries.

But pressure may be mounting for China to sell the public on its homegrown inoculations.

“I think we’re reaching a point where Chinese dominance of vaccine production and distribution in Asia is going to start to be challenged,” says Nicholas Thomas, associate professor of health security at the City University of Hong Kong. “China wants to ensure that Chinese vaccines remain the preferred choice [in those countries].”

The U.S., India, Japan, and Australia, a group of countries known as the Quad, last week agreed to supply Southeast Asia with 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines from U.S.-based Johnson & Johnson, an initiative that aims, in part, to curtail China’s vaccine dominance in the region.

International scrutiny of Chinese-made jabs has also intensified as governments consider using vaccinations as a tool to open up international travel.

China has approved five COVID-19 vaccines for use within its borders, but none of the manufacturers have thus far published late-stage clinical trial data proving that they are effective.

The lack of data has drawn criticism from foreign leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, and is already proving a thorny issue for China in negotiating international agreements to restart quarantine-free travel.

“To start the mutual understanding of vaccines, we need to really understand what the Chinese vaccine is,” Irit Ben-Abba, Israel’s ambassador to China, told the South China Morning Post on Monday.

Places like the U.S. and EU have yet to approve Chinese vaccines, but there are dozens of countries that already recognize made-in-China shots as effective. China has committed to sending 463 million of its doses abroad and says it is already exporting COVID-19 jabs to at least 43 countries.