China’s state media Global Times published a commentary article stating that the U.S. should bear the responsibility for the Russia-Ukraine war. Below are the major points in the article:

“The Ukraine crisis has been going on for more than two months. According to the U.S. State Department, the U.S. has pledged about $3.7 billion in security aid to Ukraine since February 24. A growing number of international sources point out that the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is largely the result of the arrogance and successive mistakes of the US-led Western bloc over the past 30 years. The U.S. government should bear considerable responsibility. The current actions of the United States will not help end the crisis, but will continue to play up confrontation.”

“The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is, in a sense, a proxy war waged by the United States in Europe. However, the cost of the war is mainly borne by European countries.”

“The U.S. divides the world into different camps according to its own standards, which itself violates the spirit of democracy and will only bring more chaos to the world and more disasters to the people of all countries.”

“International public opinion generally believes that the Biden administration has continuously promoted ‘returning to multilateralism’ since taking office, but in fact, it is using ideological boundaries to form factions and force the selection of sides to divide the world. The United States continues to strengthen small circles and small groups such as the ‘Quadrilateral Mechanism,’ the ‘Five Eyes Alliance’ and the ‘G7.’ The fundamental purpose is to maintain the hegemony of the United States.“

“The Ukrainian crisis is yet another example of America’s push for hegemony. One of the root causes of this war is America’s opposition to European countries developing closer economic ties with Russia.”

“Analysts pointed out that the Ukrainian crisis reflects the unilateral definition of a ‘rules-based international order’ by the United States for a long time based on its own standards. Its essence is to maintain the rule order of the HEGEMONIC power of the United States.”

Source: Global Times, May 12, 2022
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/47yThzp10yU

Recently, many Chinese netizens left messages saying that when they intended to leave China, they were rejected by border inspectors, some of their passports were cut off, and even someone’s green card was cut off, too. An agent for studying abroad said that the government had suspended citizens from going abroad to study in primary and secondary schools and stopped issuing passports for primary and secondary school students to go abroad.

In response to these, China’s National Immigration Administration (CNIA) said on May 13 that the “suspension of passports and prohibiting exiting the country by cutting one’s passport or green cards are all fake news.” These are for “distorting and smearing our entry and exit management policies, intending to interfere with the legal, accurate and effective entry and exit management under the condition of normalized COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control measures.”

On May 10, the CNIA stated, “We should strictly implement strict and tight entry and exit policies, strictly restrict the non-essential exit activities of Chinese citizens, and strictly approve and issue entry and exit documents.”

Earlier on April 27, the CNIA spokesman said that it would “strictly examine and issue documents and visas, and Chinese citizens should not leave the country for non-essential and non-emergency purposes.” In addition, it will clearly continue to implement strict and tight entry and exit policies.

According to the official explanation, “non-essential” reasons include tourism and visiting relatives. The “necessary” reasons include studying abroad, being employed, doing business, or traveling for medical treatment, participating in epidemic prevention and control, or transporting of disaster relief supplies.

Chinese authorities’ restrictions on outbound travel can be dated back to November 2020, when the CNIA said it would strictly approve applications for entry and exit documents for Chinese citizens for non-essential reasons.

The strict control of entry and exit is an important part of the “Zero-COVID” policy. China’s recent stricter immigration policy was designed “to prevent foreign import of COVID” and China will not change it in the near future.

Sources:

1. BBC News 中文, May 17, 2022.  https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-61462183
2. Aboluowang, May 10, 2022. https://www.aboluowang.com/2022/0510/1746668.html