China defends its retaliation against South Korea, Japan COVID curbs

Chinese state media defended on Wednesday the retaliatory measures against South Korea and Japan over their COVID-19 travel curbs as "reasonable", while Chinese tourists decried Seoul's "insulting" treatment on social media. China re-opened its borders on Sunday after three years of isolation under the world's strictest regime of COVID restrictions, which Beijing abruptly began dismantling in early December after historic protests With the virus spreading unchecked among China's 1.4b people after the policy U-turn, some foreign governments have raised concerns about the scale and impact of the outbreak, with the World Health Organization saying deaths are underreported. In a first, China's health authorities - which have been reporting five or fewer deaths a day over the past month, numbers that are inconsistent with the long queues seen at funeral homes - did not report COVID fatalities data on Tuesday. China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the country's National Health Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment. More than a dozen countries, including the United States, Australia and some European Union members, imposed at the start of the year requirements for pre-departure negative test results from visitors from China. Among them, South Korea and Japan have also limited flights and require tests on arrival, with passengers showing up as positive being sent to quarantine.<br/>