As China prepares to reopen its borders on Sunday, Australia is requiring all passengers coming to Australia from the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau to present a negative Covid-19 test result within 48 hours of the time of departure.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton argued the government has “panicked”, and is “making it up as they go along”.
And statements emerging from within the governing Labor Party suggest the moves were prompted by a need to “do something”, as constituents expressed concern about infection risks.
The stated justification for the restrictions is the fear of large-scale infections from the Omicron subvariants BF-7 and BF-5.2 spreading rapidly within China.
Worsening these anxieties is China’s reluctance to share data on the development and spread of variants in China.
A senior official at the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that China is not giving an accurate picture of the situation there, and that it is undercounting the number of hospitalisations and deaths from the disease.
But health experts in Australia point to research suggesting the immediate risk of large numbers of arrivals from China is limited and does not pose a significant public health concern.
The same BF-7 strain is already widespread in other countries, including the UK and the US, and citizens from those countries are not subject to any blanket covid-related travel restrictions.
And existing tests are not 100% effective and the newer variants can evade detection, even if the carrier is symptomatic or infectious.
Even Australia’s top medical officer advised against the restrictions, which were imposed just days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged to “take health advice” on the matter.
Health minister Mark Butler said he has no choice but to act with “an abundance of caution”, citing WHO’s concerns over the dangers of China’s underreporting, as well as the actions of other countries.
The countries that have imposed instructions tend to be places aligned with the US, such as Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
Others, such as Malaysia and India, are not considered to be the “China camp”.
They all face accusations they are using health concerns to mask their participation in a deepening Washington-Beijing rift.
Those governments have, in turn, expressed dismay about the lack of transparency and open information from China.
A report this week in the Australian Financial Review claims there is evidence that the restrictions are “part of a coordinated international campaign to pressure China to share more real-time pandemic data with the rest of the world”.
In the US, too, health experts have taken the Biden administration to task on the move, suggesting offers few public health benefits.
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said the policy was “epidemiologically unconvincing and diplomatically unjustified”.
“Now you’re giving Chinese people the impression that you’re punishing them,” Huang told The New York Times.
Beijing has been quick to lambast the restrictions, focusing on the political optics.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning said this week, “We firmly oppose the practice of manipulating Covid prevention and control measures to achieve political goals.”
Whether the travel restrictions are legitimate health measures, or are political in nature, it is clear they have become politicised and will affect already tense relations in the region.