China will make it easier for U.S. citizens to enter the country if they are travelling through a third country, according to notices sent out by the Chinese embassy in Washington late on Friday. This is part of what Beijing is doing to stop the Covid-19 virus from spreading.
China’s “dynamic Covid zero” policy, which aims to reduce the risk of infected travellers coming from other countries, has made it hard to travel internationally by putting up many barriers. These barriers include rules that make it hard for Chinese people to get or renew passports and strict quarantine rules when they arrive.
A new policy statement says that U.S. citizens who want to go to China and have valid negative results from a Covid test can now apply for and get a “green” health code for travel into China from either the U.S. or a third country. In the past, the embassy would only give out access codes to people who lived in the United States and were leaving the country right away.
China has recently loosened some of the rules that used to apply to people from other countries.
Because of these rules and the limited number of direct flights between the US and China, a plane ticket can cost up to $10,000.
The changes are in response to an announcement made on May 18 about a similar, small loosening of the rules for COVID testing requirements for travellers coming to China from countries like the U.S.
