Beijing’s U.S. envoy expects further COVID relaxation, easier travel to China

(Adds background on China COVID policies) WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - China’s ambassador to the United States on Monday said he believes China’s COVID-19 measures will be further relaxed in the near future and international travel to the country will become easier.

(Adds background on China COVID policies) WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) -

China’s ambassador to the United States on Monday said he believes China’s COVID-19 measures will be further relaxed in the near future and international travel to the country will become easier. Ambassador Qin Gang told an event staged by the Semafor news platform that China's government was taking a very responsible attitude to protect people from the threat of COVID-19, and said his country's policy had always been "dynamic, not rigid."

"Now the measures are being relaxed, and in the near future, I believe that the measures will be further relaxed and international travel will become easier ... from all the directions to China." Three years into the pandemic, China is acting to align with a world that has largely reopened to live with COVID, after unprecedented protests in China that became a de-facto referendum against a "zero-COVID" policy championed by President Xi Jinping.

China has all but shut its borders to international travel for nearly three years. International flights remain still at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels and arrivals face eight days in quarantine. Analysts have been forecasting

a reopening in March or April.

Beijing has dropped mandatory testing prior to many public activities, reined in quarantine, and by early Tuesday will have deactivated a state-mandated mobile app used to track the travel histories of a population of 1.4 billion people.

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