President Biden reverses stance, announces regulations on travel from China

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced new travel restrictions on travel from China, requiring travelers to test negative for COVID-19 prior to boarding their flight to the U.S.

The policy will go into effect on Jan. 5. It largely created due to China’s lack of transparency in their monitoring of COVID-19 cases. The restriction applies to all travellers coming from China, and not just Chinese citizens.

Many have criticized the move since President Joe Biden previously attacked then-President Donald Trump in 2020 for enacting a similar travel restriction, which he suggested was xenophobic.

Trump’s policy, announced in Jan. 2020, restricted travel from China after COVID-19 began to spread to the United States. Biden, who was running for president at the time, quickly attacked Trump for “fear-mongering.”

“This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysterical xenophobia and fear-mongering to lead the way instead of science.” 

He later added, “We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering.”

As the coronavirus continued to spread across the globe, Trump enacted further restrictions limiting travel from Europe, to which Biden tweeted: “A wall will not stop the coronavirus. Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it. This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet — and we need a plan to combat it.”

When the pandemic worsened, Biden’s team began to walk back his prior comments, and said that his tweet accusing Trump of xenophobia was “not in reference to coronavirus travel restrictions.”