China upset with US pulling non-emergency staff from Shanghai

ISTANBUL – China has expressed disapproval of the US move to order its non-emergency workers and their family members to leave the COVID-19-hit Shanghai city.

“China has lodged solemn representations with the US over its order to evacuate its consulate in Shanghai,” Zhao Lijian, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a news conference in Beijing.

“China’s epidemic prevention and control policies are scientific and effective,” Zhao said, according to Chinese public broadcaster CGTN.

He said Shanghai local authorities “are providing as much assistance and convenience as possible to foreign nationals, as long as the policy allows.”

“China deplores and rejects the US move of politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of personnel departure,” Zhao said.

Earlier on April 11, the US State Department ordered its non-emergency US government workers and their family members to leave Shanghai.

The department also called on Americans to reconsider traveling to China, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Jilin province, and Shanghai municipality “due to COVID-19-related restrictions, including the risk of parents and children being separated.”

“China’s anti-epidemic policy is in keeping with its national realities, meets the need for combating COVID-19, works effectively, and contributes significantly to the global fight against the pandemic,” Zhao had said shortly after the US announcement.

Shanghai, China’s most populous city, is one of the regions hit worst in an unprecedented virus wave that saw the country record more than 100,000 infections in March alone.

Earlier this month, authorities extended a lockdown and restrictions in Shanghai for an indefinite period and have been carrying out a citywide campaign to test its millions of residents.

However, since April 11, local authorities began to partially lift community lockdowns.