Remarks
China Has a Clever Plan to Keep Its Citizens Spending at Home
Why let consumer cash escape to other nations?
Illustration: George Wylesol for Bloomberg Businessweek
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China has become almost free of Covid-19. Its success results partly from draconian quarantines. And it isn’t letting its guard down. The capital city of Beijing, for instance, added restrictions just six weeks after resuming international flights in early September. Travelers from overseas must now be tested three times, instead of twice. They also have to spend two weeks isolated in a hotel chosen by the government. Some rooms can be quite dingy.
This lack of human touch naturally turns foreigners away. But Chinese who want to travel abroad have second thoughts, too. Who wants to be enclosed in a tiny room upon returning home?