China Issues Travel Advisory for U.S.

The US State Department has its China Travel Advisory set at Level for, which stands for ‘Do Not Travel“. The advisory is due to the “novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China” and later declared a global health emergency. Most commercial air carriers have reduced or suspended routes to and from China. It has also affected domestic airlines like Hainan.

Now China is retaliating and has issued its own travel warning for the United States. The advisory released by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Monday cautioned travelers not to visit the US due to American’s overreaction to the deadly virus, unfair treatment of Chinese tourists in the US and unspecified uncertainties over its domestic security as per SCMP.

While more than 60 countries have imposed some form of travel restrictions on people from China and some two dozen countries have evacuated their citizens from Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, Beijing appeared to be particularly offended by the US, which was among the first to act.

This is not the first time that China issues travel advisory for U.S.. Last summer China issued a travel warning, telling its citizens to beware of shootings, robberies and high costs for medical care. The US hit back with its own warning about travel to China.

China was the fifth-biggest source of tourists to the United States in 2017. But the number from China fell 5.7 per cent to 2.9 million in 2018 for the first time since 2003, largely due to the spiraling trade tensions and China’s economic downturn, according to US government data.