Typo?

Oh please, there nothing terrifying about any of it at this point.

That’s disappointing but not surprising. World leaders are doing their best to keep the shenanigans rolling.

This sounds like the type of battle that everyone loses.

China may not have gone as far as blocking a whole country but it does have a similar policy in place, the so-called circuit-breaker on flights with excessive positive cases which has recently been applied to the China Eastern route of JFK/PVG.

Only thing you can really do is make sure that you're not the one who threw the first grenade.

define "grenade" first :p

Indeed. Chinese tourists are a valued source of demand and major revenue stream for external tourist-dependent economies. If it tourism demand (and spending) is kept within domestic borders the tourist-dependent economies (such as the 5 Eyes alliance) will be screaming that China is being protectionist.

I've been researching flights from Shanghai to the US for May and June. The prices are no longer insane, but the routings are (e.g. PVG-ICN-SEA-BOS...41 hours total). PVG-CDG-BOS is actually the best I've found...I will try to book this one way with DL miles, and hope that US-China flights are back on the schedule when I come back.

ETA: For those of you without China IDs, now is a good time to invest in residence permits. Just pay an agent around $600 (many can hook up with a "job"), jump through the hoops, and ask a friend to allow you to use his/her residence for documentation purposes. You still might be required to stay in a (very cheap) designated hotel during your quarantine, but maybe not for 14 days. Apart from RPs being awesome, I know a number of people on M visas who have been booted recently; those cameras are everywhere.

Border policies that have nothing to do with science and data, like accepting Chinese vaccines (Sinovac/Sinopharm) but not Pfizer/Moderna/J&J. A lot of the data I've seen says that the Sinovac one may be the worst of the above.

Huh? What do you mean by "booted"? Did they violate quarantine?

No. They are actually working here on L or M visas. This is no longer allowed, though M is better than L (i.e. buys you around 3 months).

Working on tourist or business visas was never allowed. In the past this was loosely enforced, now they kick people out who do it. Fair enough IMHO.

If you worked for McKinsey in SF and had a project in BJ, business visas were definitely allowed 10 years ago, and might still be now. The current crackdown I've witnessed focuses on domestic helpers from SE Asia. Basically, they spend a week in "detention" and then get booted. To me, this is shameful because all of their bosses are MDs at F500 companies, and could actually hire them legally if they put up $600. Instead, they tell them to lay low.

yeah meant

given Beijing Winter Olympics are scheduled for Feb 2022, does FT believe that China will open up borders prior to Feb 2022

which is more important, Olympics or Stability? Unless context tracking can be done efficiently for 1.4 billion people or China can import enough vaccine (SinoVac only has effacacy of 50%) I would say very unlikely

Do you categorize Trump's ban on Chinese traveler into U.S. directly from China last March as based on scientific data or not then?

The consultant is traveling in and out and is not working full time in China, it’s a short term assignment. A business visa is appropriate for that type of work. If they got transferred to the Beijing office of McK then they’d need a work permit and residence permit. The domestic helpers are obviously working full time in China and domiciled here. According to the rules they need a WP and RP as well. I agree that it’s a shame they are cracking down but it’s technically illegal to work full time in China on anything other than a work permit backed RP.