Record the living conditions of foreigners in China during Covid-19 time
China has basically controlled the domestic coronavirus pandemic by taking a series of measures today.
Chinese health care has strike a balance and hospitals are back to normal operations except for the strict Covid detection regime.
Economy affected by the COVID-19 begins to recover. According to official data, 2020 China’s Tmall’s Double Eleven global shopping extravaganza reached 4,982 billion.
Education returns to normal. Primary and middle schools, as well as colleges and universities have resumed normal offline instruction.
Tourism industry has recovered. China received 637 million domestic tourists and achieved domestic tourism revenue 466.56 billion during the eight-day National Day holiday.
As of 16 November 2020, 388 diagnosed Covid cases exist, with 18 new cases.
What is the background of COVID-19 in China?
2020 will be an extraordinary year for the world because of the COVID-19.
Coronavirus was first discovered in Wuhan, China where 27 suspected cases of infection occurred in 8 December 2019.
The condition was caught by the doctors and a special team was set up at the hospital to follow this special symptom.
On 9 January 2020, the expert assessment team of the National Health Commission of China announced that the pathogen of “unexplained viral pneumonia” was initially judged to be a novel coronavirus.
On 12 January 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) officially names the virus “2019-nCoV”.
Soon, eruptions of COVID-19 occurred and rapidly spread across the world.
What is the situation of foreigners in China now?
Data shows there are over one million foreigners working and studying in China currently.
Matthias Manggold, a freelancer from Germany, is living in Hainan Province, China.
Matthias has been living in China for 6 years and has his own company and restaurant. He recalls that he had to close company and restaurant during the hardest COVID-19 time because there was a strict ‘Lockdown Policy’ at that time.
“I met some problems, for examples, dismissed most of our long-term employees and had financial difficulties.”
However, the coronavirus situation in China is good and most of the new cases are imported now after 2 months ‘Hardest Time’.
MUHAMMAD ASAD IQBAL, a student from Pakistan, is a PhD at Jiangsu University (JSU).
He says, people in China are still wear face masks, especially in public places like public transports. China established advanced big data system to track COVID-19. School was divided into several spaces with limited access and we have to report our temperature everyday.
There are lots of international students in Asad’s living area. So he also does a volunteer work with the school to record their daily health and personal information to help international students have a better learning and living experience in China.
“I learned a lot during the coronavirus time. I’m very glad to help my teachers and get along with the Chinese students and friends.”
What they say about the COVID-19 in China?
Abdul-Nazif Mahmud, a doctor from Ghana, has been working in Chinese hospital – in Jiangsu University Affiliate Hospital.
He experienced the whole process of China’s fight against the coronavirus in hospital. Abdul-Nazif says Chinese are really on the center of success of controlling COVID-19 because they cooperate with government and health professionals.
Alberto Conejo, a professor from Mexico, has been teaching in the University of science and technology Beijing (USTB).
He comments ‘China’s performance against the Covid’ as ‘Wisdom and Correct’.
Alberto still remembers how some western media reacted at the lockdown of 60 million people in Wuhan, calling the Chinese government a ‘dictatorship’.
But the memory of SARS are fresh which confirmed ‘Lockdown’ was an efficient measure.
China’s current immigration policy:
According to the current coronavirus situation, some of the measures in the ‘Announcement on Temporary Suspension of Entry of Foreigners with Valid Chinese Visas and Residence Permits’, jointly issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and the State Migration Administration of the People’s Republic of China on 26 March 2020, are hereby adjusted as follows:
The Chinese embassies in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Russia, the Philippines and India issued notices on 4 November and 5 November 2020 respectively, suspending the entry into China of people from those countries with currently valid Chinese visas and work-, personal- affairs and reunion-type residence permits.
People with diplomatic, official, courtesy and C-word visas are not affected.
On 5 November 2020, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released that all passengers traveling to mainland China from the United States, France, Germany, India, Singapore, Canada, Pakistan, and South Africa must undergo both nucleic acid and antibody tests, and the tests must be conducted no more than 48 hours from boarding.
If passengers need to transit through China en-route, the same tests will also be required in the transit country or region from 6 November 2020.