China Discounts Visa Entry Fee for 14 Countries Amid Worsening Pneumonia Outbreak

A woman wears a protective face mask and gloves while waiting to go through immigration at Beijing airport on Feb. 1, 2020. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

China’s communist regime says it will discount entry visa fees for travelers from more than a dozen countries as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials grapple with the spread of a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has left hospitals across the country overflowing with children.

The 25 percent fee cut was announced during a press briefing on Dec. 8; the CCP stated that since downgrading COVID-19 to a second-level infectious disease, accompanied by less stringent preventative measures on Jan. 8, the regime has continued to improve visa policies to encourage more travelers to visit.

The discount takes effect at Chinese embassies and consulates on Dec. 11 and extends to Dec. 31, 2024.

Following the announcement, Chinese embassies in at least 14 countries stated that they would reduce visa fees for their citizens to visit China. The countries include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, Fiji, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Earlier, on Nov. 24, the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would offer visa-free entry to six European and Asian countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia starting from Dec. 1.

In two weeks, the CCP has relaxed entry visa policies targeting hundreds of millions of people in at least 20 countries.

The mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China that’s mainly affecting children, causing severe respiratory symptoms such as the “white lung” that was often seen in serious COVID-19 cases, has begun to spread to adults.

South Korea, the United States, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France have also reported a spike in pneumonia cases in recent weeks, while some nations, such as Japan and Taiwan, are putting pressure on China and demanding more information from China on their outbreak.

Some leaders within national governments are worried that this wave of pneumonia might be like the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic that started three years ago and have considered taking prevention measures to either require lung infection screening tests for travelers from China or to put in place travel controls on China.

Taiwan’s Health Ministry on Nov. 30 urged the elderly, very young, and those with poor immunity to avoid traveling to China because of the outbreak.

Beijing responded on Nov. 23 to the World Health Organization’s request for data on the pneumonia outbreak that has lasted for three months by saying no “unusual or new pathogens” have been found.

However, the international community isn’t convinced, continuing to call the current child pneumonia outbreak in China “unknown,” “undiagnosed,” and “mysterious.”

The WHO will “follow up with China” about the ongoing wave of respiratory infections, agency epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said on Nov. 29.

Children and their parents wait in an outpatient room at a children's hospital in Beijing on Nov. 23, 2023. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

Another Wave of COVID-19

The CCP has blamed different pathogens for the pneumonia outbreak in China that has again led to white lung syndrome, naming in official statements multiple respiratory infections, such as mycoplasma pneumonia, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus infection, that it blamed for cross-infections, while largely avoiding “COVID-19” or “SARS-CoV-2.”

Sean Lin, an assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College, former U.S. Army microbiologist, and Epoch Times contributor, told The Epoch Times that there are things that the CCP needs to explain.

“Why do so many people now need to go to the hospital for treatment, severe cases require IV treatment, and even white lung [has appeared] and require lung washing, etc. How do you explain [the occurrence of these] severe cases?

“Even if there is cross-infection, there is no specific explanation as to which two viruses are causing cross infections that make the symptoms worse.”

Patients line up for an emergency pre-check at the new pediatric building of Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai, China, on the night of Sept. 25, 2023. The emergency and nightcare outpatient hall is crowded with children and family members waiting for treatment. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Dr. Gareth Nye, a program leader for BMedSci Medical Science at Chester Medical School told British media that the mysterious wave of pneumonia spreading in China is another form of COVID-19 and not a new virus.

Shanghai resident Zhang Hong (pseudonym) told The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet NTD on Dec. 7 that two relatives of his had just died after acquiring suspected COVID-19 infections. His family is now handling the funerals.

“My two relatives passed away very quickly from this respiratory infection,” he said. “That’s what the hospital said, they had the same symptoms: coughing and fever.

“If you go to the hospital here, you can see that the situation is very scary. They all have this kind of fever and cough. But now, they don’t admit that this is COVID-19.”

He said everyone thinks that COVID-19 is coming back but nobody dares to say it publicly.

People receive medical attention in a fever clinic area of a hospital in the Changning district in Shanghai on Dec. 23, 2022 HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images

In July, Shi Zhengli, China’s top virologist who specializes in conducting research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, wrote in a published research paper in the scientific journal Emerging Microbes & Infections that another COVID-19 outbreak is “highly likely.”

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been widely suspected of having accidentally leaked the virus that caused the first COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019 and led to the global pandemic.

COVID-19 was originally called “Wuhan pneumonia” by Chinese.

Huang Yun and Xu Jian contributed to this report.