When the quarantine is no longer needed, come visit me in Shanghai!”To get more latest Shanghai news, you can visit shine news official website.
That was my grand invitation to colleagues and friends before I took
up my position as Lianhe Zaobao’s Shanghai correspondent. However, I
knew I was too ambitious the moment I landed in Shanghai. Not
considering the 14-day centralised quarantine, international flights and
customs clearance procedures during the pandemic were already enough to
turn avid travellers away.
The air was tense before I boarded the plane and departed for Shanghai.
Singapore Changi Airport’s departure hall stood empty. There were no
tearful goodbyes. A handful of people walked past hastily, in silence.
Stores were shuttered. Of the few that were open, customer greetings had
changed from a friendly “Welcome!” to a reminder to “check-in digitally
by scanning the QR code”.
Knowing that I would be stuck in an enclosed cabin for five hours, I decided to put on a face shield in addition to my medical mask, thinking that two layers of protection would suffice. It was not until I saw how securely protected the other travellers were that I realised the insignificance of my so-called protective measures. More than half of the travellers in the waiting area were in snow white personal protective equipment (PPE) complete with N95 face masks, face shields, and hats. Some people even wore disposable foot covers, determined to thoroughly protect themselves from head to toe.
However, due to the multiple layers of protection, some people
recorded higher body temperatures while boarding. They had to remove
their hats to lower their body temperatures before joining the queue
again. The PPEs also made going to the toilet a cumbersome task, and
many passengers chose to not eat or drink throughout the flight. For the
first time ever, I was able to use the lavatory without having to
queue.
While the number of protection measures have increased, inflight
services have been reduced. Inflight meal services are no longer
available on the Singapore Airlines’ flight to Shanghai, while inflight
products are distributed before boarding the aircraft. These include a
bag of snacks and drinks, a kit containing a surgical mask,
anti-bacterial wipes and a hand sanitiser, and a pair of headphones for
the inflight entertainment system.
Three hours into the flight, the air stewardesses emerged again — not with meals and drinks — but with thermometers to measure body temperatures and check if the passengers were feeling alright.After more than five hours, the plane landed at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Passengers seated at the front rows excitedly stood up and reached for their bags, but were immediately stopped by the air stewardesses. A moment later, two Chinese customs quarantine officers entered the cabin. They checked the passenger list and ensured that all of us had completed our online health declarations before the flight. The passengers disembarked in batches, while those who failed to submit their health declarations were the last to leave.
Then came Covid-19 testing. We were given a coronavirus sampling sheet and a test tube after presenting our health codes to the quarantine officers. We then headed to the test site that was ten minutes away from the collection point via a temporarily built passageway. I knew nasal swab tests could easily cause discomfort and was secretly relieved when I heard that we were going to take a blood test. To my horror, I was asked to tilt my head backwards after the blood test. I screamed, “Isn’t a blood test enough?” The swabber replied calmly, “After I swabbed both sides of the nose, I would also need to do a throat swab. Then only would the results be accurate.”
The Chinese government has stopped renewing press credentials for foreign journalists working for American news organizations in China and has implied it will proceed with expulsions if the Trump administration takes further action against Chinese media employees in the United States, according to six people with knowledge of the events.To get more China latest news, you can visit shine news official website.
The actions and threats raise the stakes in the continuing cycles of retribution between Washington and Beijing over news media organizations. Those rounds of retaliation are a prominent element of a much broader downward spiral in U.S.-China relations, one that involves mutually hostile policies and actions over trade, technology, education, diplomatic missions, Taiwan and military presence in Asia.
American news organizations immediately affected by China’s latest actions include CNN, The Wall Street Journal and Getty Images. Journalists from all three organizations tried to renew press cards with the Foreign Ministry last week, but were told the cards, which are usually good for one year, could not be renewed. In total, at least five journalists in four organizations have been affected, several reporters said.
One journalist said Foreign Ministry officials told him that his fate depended on whether the United States decided in the fall to renew the visas of Chinese journalists working in America who are under new visa regulations imposed by the Department of Homeland Security in May. Other journalists have received similar messages.
The journalist said he was told by Chinese officials that if the Trump administration decided to expel Chinese journalists, Beijing would take reciprocal action. Many of the Chinese journalists work for state-run news organizations.
Foreign journalists working in China must renew their press cards to get new residence permits from the Public Security Bureau, the main police organization. The residence permits are the equivalent of visas that allow foreigners to live in China. The journalists with expired press cards were told by police officials after their discussions with Foreign Ministry officials that they would be given residence permits that are good until November 6.
They were given letters from the Foreign Ministry that said they could continue to work in China for the time being despite the expired press cards, according to a copy of one such letter obtained by The New York Times.
The early November end point for the residence permits corresponds to when the Trump administration might decide not to renew visas for many Chinese news media employees in the United States, which would result in their expulsions.
In May, the administration announced that all Chinese journalists would now have 90-day work visas — a significant reduction from the open-ended, single-entry visas they had gotten previously. The journalists would be allowed to apply for extensions of 90 days each. In early August, the visas expired, but the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the State Department, did not expel any of the Chinese journalists or renew their visas, which meant they got a de facto extension of 90 days, according to the language of the new regulation.


