With the domestic anti-epidemic battle about to be won, in order to ensure economic recovery, the focus of epidemic prevention has shifted to "preventing external input and internal rebound," which is very correct.
However, the relevant departments should not adopt the wrong method of cutting off the road for overseas Chinese citizens to return home in order to "prevent external input."
Preventing their own citizens from returning home like preventing thieves is not only lazy governance but also a serious political mistake.
On March 26, 2020, the State Council Information Office held a press conference, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Luo Zhaohui said:
"Among the confirmed cases currently imported into China, 90% of the people hold Chinese passports. In the past, the focus was on preventing the export of cases, but now the focus is on preventing importation. Among the personnel holding Chinese passports, 40% are students studying abroad. These numbers indicate that there is a high travel safety risk."
Preventing external input mainly means preventing foreign patients from entering China, so it is completely correct to suspend the entry of foreigners.
However, the relevant departments have no right to prevent their own citizens from returning home.
Under the condition of prohibiting the entry of foreigners, drastically reducing flights is obviously to prevent their own citizens from returning home.
According to data from the Civil Aviation Administration, 25,000 people entered the country every day from March 12 to the present, but out of the 370,000 people who entered during this period, there were only about 500 confirmed imported cases. This is completely within a controllable range.
And now they want to cut flights by 80%, allowing only 5,000 citizens to enter the country every day. Is it necessary to prevent hundreds of thousands of their own citizens from returning home in order to reduce a few hundred patients?
As for the excuse that there is a high travel risk, it is even more lazy governance.
It is precisely because the Civil Aviation Administration has suspended many direct flights of Chinese airlines that Chinese citizens have to spend several days at great risk to transfer through multiple countries, greatly increasing the risk along the way.
Many foreign airlines are not afraid of risks and are willing to transport Chinese citizens. Now the Civil Aviation Administration not only does not help its own people but also prevents them from returning home?
Deputy Minister Luo also said:
"We understand the desire of some students studying abroad to return home, but we hope that students and their parents will carefully weigh the pros and cons and make the right choice. Under the current situation, staying in the local area can avoid hasty return causing cross-infection, or being blocked midway due to control measures in transit countries, and it can also avoid potential impacts on studies and visas. This is also in line with the professional advice of the World Health Organization."
What kind of talk is this? Aren't overseas Chinese people more aware of what is more important?
Now the UK, the US, and many European countries are in an uncontrolled state of the epidemic, and the number of confirmed cases is rapidly increasing. Every day that overseas Chinese students and staff stay abroad, they are increasing their risk. If they wait until the summer vacation in May or June to return in large numbers, the number of imported cases will be ten or a hundred times the current number.
If the relevant departments prevent overseas citizens from returning home for the sake of their own reputation, causing a large-scale outbreak among Chinese people in foreign countries and resulting in significant deaths, it would be a crime against the Chinese people!
Many countries are able to evacuate their citizens from epidemic areas. In comparison, shouldn't the relevant departments think about what it means to serve the people?
The Civil Aviation Administration has cut more than 80% of flights carrying Chinese citizens into the country and arrogantly says:
"There is indeed a certain risk in long-distance travel, so we also hope that passengers will make cautious, careful, and calm decisions based on their own circumstances."
Please note that the passengers mentioned here are Chinese citizens! Returning to the country is an inalienable right of Chinese citizens!
There are hundreds of thousands of overseas Chinese students who have not yet returned to China, and the Civil Aviation Administration turns a blind eye to the large number of Chinese citizens whose flights have been canceled, but says it will open temporary flights or charter flights as needed.
The actual need is right in front of you!
Allowing their own citizens to return home is not contradictory to "preventing external input." The key is to do a good job of centralized self-funded quarantine for 14 days.
There can be many ways to solve this problem. For example, "Zhidao Xuegong" suggests that Hainan Island can be used as a centralized quarantine area because Hainan Island has no less than 300,000 guest rooms and is in the off-season, so it has the capacity to receive them, which can also greatly boost the local economy. Even Hainan Airlines, which is in a difficult situation, may be able to revive itself through this.
In short, there are more solutions than difficulties.
Do you want other countries to say after the epidemic is over that their country sent charter flights to bring them back, while overseas Chinese say that our motherland is worried about us infecting others and prevents us from returning?