US says no cause for China retaliation over Covid-19 curbs

WASHINGTON - The White House said there’s no reason Beijing should

retaliate against the US and other nations that have imposed Covid-19 restrictions on its travellers,

saying the moves were justified on public health grounds as China experiences a surge in cases.

“There’s no cause for retaliation here. Just because countries around the world are taking prudent health measures to protect their citizens, that’s what you’re seeing from us and others,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday in a briefing. 

“This decision is based on public health and science,” she said. “This is coming from our experts here and other countries.”

The US, Japan and other countries will

require travellers from China to show a negative test before entering.

The new US restrictions take effect Thursday. China has said it would hit back at nations that impose new rules on its travellers, dismissing the measures as “political goals.”

“We believe that some countries’ entry restrictions targeting only China lack scientific basis and some excessive measures are unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said earlier Tuesday at a briefing in Beijing.

China is seeing Covid-19 cases soar after the country

abandoned its strict “zero-Covid” protocols,

letting the virus run rampant. 

The US has also raised concerns about the transparency of China’s data on the spread of the virus.

“Due to the surge of Covid-19 cases in the PRC, and the lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data being recorded from the PRC, we’re taking deliberate, proactive steps to slow the spread of Covid-19 and to be on alert for any potential Covid-19 variants,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a briefing on Tuesday.

Ms Jean-Pierre said the World Health Organisation is calling on China to release more data to help identify potential variants. 

“Again, there is no need for retaliation. This is something that all of us, other countries are doing to make sure that we are protecting our citizens here,” she said. 

A spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council said the US has offered China assistance with its outbreak, including US-developed vaccines, but that Beijing has indicated publicly it doesn’t need the help.

The Biden administration stands by the offer, the spokeswoman said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. BLOOMBERG