Pointless unless you ban flights from everywhere. The virus is still circulating everywhere and a potential new variant with an evolutionary advantage will also be everywhere in no time unless everyone bans flights from China.

The virus variants circulating in China (BF.7 and BA.5.2) are actually not as problematic for us as the ones circulating in the US and Europe for example (BQ.1 and XXB) because we've all been exposed to them in summer already..

"Come on, guys. Now's our last chance. Those infection surges and health care system collapses looked so much fun when the others had it. We cannot let that opportunity to fuck up our citizens' lives slip by."

Daily Mail is the NY Post equivalent. The Torygraph has a right-wing bias, but isn't yellow press. It's more like the Wall Street Journal.

This is a good in-depth article on whether it makes sense to impose travel restrictions or not:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/why-imposing-travel-restrictions-against-china-waste-time/

Lays out the arguments of both sides.

Last I heard the CCP said they estimate 80% of Beijing residents are infected and there are millions of new infections across the country every day. They don’t give any exact numbers because they've lost track and have given up on testing everyone.

They're never gonna be 100% transparent, but they do share a bit more now when it comes to the most important data: genetic sequences

Financial Times: China steps up Covid variant monitoring as countries impose entry curbs - Genomic data-sharing on winter wave increases while fears mount over Beijing’s transparency

> The agency has asked Chinese officials to share more genetic sequencing data, as well as data on hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.

They have stepped up when it comes to sharing of geneting sequencing data:

> National, provincial and private health-care authorities in China have provided nearly 1,000 genetic sequences from infected patients to GISAID in the past five days, said Chief Executive Officer Peter Bogner.

> China is also ramping up efforts to track mutations, with the recent upload of sequencing data comparing with just 25 samples submitted in the previous month, he said.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-30/china-has-no-new-covid-variants-as-sequencing-efforts-strengthen

Sure it could, but just by meeting Putin? Others have done that this year without much controversy, for example Kazakhstan's President and Armenia's PM.

Xi is already responsible for a currently ongoing genocide. How much worse could his reputation get by meeting Putin?

Why would that make him stupid?

From the article:

> No novel Covid-19 variants have emerged in China, according to a global consortium that’s tracking coronavirus mutations, potentially easing concerns that the country’s record wave of infections would give rise to new strains that could circulate around the world.

> National, provincial and private health-care authorities in the country have provided nearly 1,000 genetic sequences from infected patients to GISAID in the past five days, said Chief Executive Officer Peter Bogner. So far, all the samples continue to be omicron, though subvariants that have hit other parts of the world – including XBB.1 and BQ.1.1 – have emerged, he said.

> “The variants continue to circulate without any significant changes that raise any specter of concern,” Bogner said. “You do not have any kind of data that suggest anything but business as usual.”

> China is also ramping up efforts to track mutations, with the recent upload of sequencing data comparing with just 25 samples submitted in the previous month, he said.

Financial Times has some more details, says the two dominant subvariants are both BA.5 sub-subvariants:

https://www.ft.com/content/e9d2c4ee-5f41-458f-9980-77a27f3bd093

> A research team at a major Beijing university that has begun submitting sequenced samples from the city said about 80 per cent of their specimens were the Omicron sub-variant BF.7, while 20 per cent were BA.5.2. Both are spin-offs of the BA.5 strain.

> “The sample size is small so we still need more data to figure out the full picture,” said a member of the research team who asked to not be named.

> The findings are consistent with statements from Chinese health officials who have said the two Omicron sub-variants are responsible for the majority of the cases in the country, as well as other samples uploaded to Gisaid from Fujian, Guangdong, Sichuan and other provinces.

China doesn't enter military alliances. They cooperate only if there is a concrete benefit for them.

Not a particularly great idea. Russia and Iran are Armenia's only allies.

Of course. But that doesn't make it stupid.

It's Omicron, nothing special. We in the West are much better protected against it compared to the Chinese population which has been completely shielded from all COVID variants that have emerged since mid 2020.

The only reason it's running rampant in China is that they abruptly ended their Zero COVID strategy.

The original variant had spread across the world long before Chinese New Year and even before regular New Year. We just couldn't tell at that point, but later tests showed that it was already in multiple countries including Spain, Italy and the US before anyone even knew there was a new virus.

Italy is doing that:

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/italy-imposes-mandatory-covid-tests-travellers-china-2022-12-28/

> Italy has ordered COVID-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travellers coming from China

Why so? It was necessary for as long as they followed the Zero COVID strategy.

Now that they've abandoned it they can also allow Chinese tourists to go abroad again.

> The crisis stems from the then-Trump administration’s decision to block appointments of judges to the top WTO appeal body – which the US claimed was overstepping its role and encroaching on US sovereignty.

> The failure to replace retiring judges caused the top appeal body to grind to a halt in 2019. The Biden administration has not resumed appointments, saying the US concerns about the dispute system “remain unaddressed”.

> Australia and China were among a large number of co-sponsors of a proposal put to a meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body in Geneva on Tuesday.

What exactly are the concerns of the US?