THE Chinese government suspended issuing tourist and business visas today for South Koreans — and reportedly for the Japanese too — in apparent retaliation for Covid-19 testing requirements imposed by those countries on travellers from China.
The Chinese embassy in Seoul, in a brief notice on its WeChat social media account, said the ban would continue until South Korea lifts its “discriminatory entry measures” against China.
Japan’s Kyodo News service said the ban would also affect Japanese travellers, though there was no similar announcement from China.
The cancelled China trip of the German Foreign Minister marks a break with Helmut Schmidt’s China policy and drives Germany further into Washington’s confrontation course, warns SEVIM DAGDELEN
From anonymous surveys claiming Chinese students are spying on each other to a meltdown about the size of China’s London embassy, the evidence is everywhere that Britain is embracing full spectrum Sinophobia as the war clouds gather, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ


