China won't require COVID-19 tests for incoming travelers in a milestone in its reopening

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China will no longer require a negative COVID-19 test result for incoming travelers starting Wednesday, a milestone in its reopening to the rest of the world after a three-year isolation that began with the country’s borders closing in March 2020.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced the change at a briefing in Beijing on Monday.

China in January ended quarantine requirements for its own citizens traveling from abroad, and over the past few months has gradually expanded the list of countries that Chinese people can travel to and increased the number of international flights.

Beijing ended its tough domestic “zero COVID” policy only in December, after years of draconian curbs that at times included full-city lockdowns and lengthy quarantines for people who were infected.

The restrictions slowed the world’s second-largest economy, leading to rising unemployment and occasional instances of unrest.

As part of those measures, incoming travelers were required to isolate for weeks at government-designated hotels. Residents were in some cases forcibly locked into their homes in attempts to stop the virus from spreading.

Protests in major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing erupted in November over the COVID curbs, in the most direct challenge to the Communist Party’s rule since the Tiananmen protests of 1989.

In early December, authorities abruptly scrapped most COVID controls, ushering in a wave of infections that overwhelmed hospitals and morgues.

A U.S. federally funded study this month found the rapid dismantling of the “zero COVID” policy may have led to nearly 2 million excess deaths in the following two months. That number greatly exceeds official estimates of 60,000 deaths within a month of the lifting of the...