US urges China to alter quarantine requirements for American diplomats

 

Bloomberg

The Biden administration said it recommended changes to China’s requirements for Covid-19 quarantine and testing among American diplomats, adding to tensions between the world’s biggest economies ahead of the Olympics.
“We have long-standing concerns regarding the PRC’s quarantine and testing policies that run counter to diplomatic privileges and immunities,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Thursday, referring to China’s formal name. “We’ve recommended what we think are a series of reasonable options that would be consistent with Covid-19 mitigation measures and at the same time align with international diplomatic norms.”
The remarks followed a report by CNN saying that officials at the US embassy in Beijing formally asked the State Department to allow American diplomats to leave the country after some diplomats expressed concern over China’s increasingly strict Covid-19 restrictions in recent months.
In a call with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi accused the US of flouting agreements reached during a November summit between President Joe Biden and counterpart Xi Jinping. The senior Chinese diplomat Wang protested what he said were U.S. efforts to interfere with the Beijing Olympics next week, and also cited US support for Taiwan as well as Washington’s efforts to build “small circles” of like-minded nations to counter Beijing.
At a briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian suggested any withdrawal of American envoys or their families would be done to tarnish Beijing’s hosting of the Winter Olympics, which start next week. He said China was one of the safest places in the world to be during the pandemic.
“China’s epidemic prevention and control measures are stringent, thorough and science based,” he said.

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