- 在日本为应对COVID-19病例的激增而对来自中国的入境者实施更严格的边境管制后，中国从1月10日起暂停向日本公民发放签证，为期三周。
- 日本没有对中国公民实施全面的签证禁令，这导致了日本对缺乏对等的抗议。
- 周日，中国驻日本大使馆恢复了签证发放，标志着签证冻结的结束。
- 中国突然改变立场的原因仍然不明，但有人认为，这可能是由于希望为中国共产党及其领导人习近平挽回面子，后者下令实施严格的零签证政策。
- 随着中国共产党全国代表大会的临近，习近平极力想把中国对COVID-19的遏制描绘成一种成功。
- 零COVID政策引起了公众的强烈反响，最终使党的统治陷入困境，导致该政策被放弃。
- 类似的推理可以适用于中国对日本边境管制的报复，北京认为这是对习近平的侮辱。
- 中国的签证报复很可能是由新任高级外交官王毅和秦刚策划的，他们不能被视为对日本太软弱。
- 如果签证禁令持续下去，就会导致两国的经济关系崩溃。
- 最后，随着中国新年假期的结束，签证禁令也结束了，理性和智慧占了上风。
- China suspended the issuance of visas to Japanese citizens for three weeks starting from Jan. 10, after Japan imposed stricter border controls for arrivals from China in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases.
- Japan did not impose a blanket ban on visas for Chinese nationals, which led to a protest from Japan for the lack of reciprocity.
- On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Japan resumed the issuance of visas, signaling the end of the visa freeze.
- The reason for China’s sudden change of stance remains unknown, but it is suggested that it could be due to the desire to save face for the Chinese Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, who ordered the implementation of a strict zero-COVID policy.
- As the national congress of the Chinese Communist Party approached, Xi desperately wanted to portray China’s containment of COVID-19 as a success.
- The zero-COVID policy had a strong public backlash and eventually put the party’s rule in jeopardy, leading to the abandonment of the policy.
- Similar reasoning could apply to China’s retaliation against Japan’s border controls, where Beijing saw it as an insult to Xi.
- China’s visa retaliation was likely orchestrated by the new top diplomats, Wang Yi and Qin Gang, who couldn’t afford to be seen as too soft on Japan.
- If the visa ban had persisted, it would have resulted in a collapse of economic relations between the two countries.
- In the end, the visa ban was brought to a close as the Chinese New Year holidays drew to a close and reason and wisdom prevailed.
链接：Analysis: China flip-flop on Japanese visas highlights further policy confusion - Nikkei Asia