China declares ‘new phase’ in COVID response after Beijing reopens borders
China has declared a “new phase” in its response to COVID after Beijing dropped its pandemic border controls.
The move on Sunday, which marked one of the last steps of dismantling Beijing’s ‘zero-COVID’ policy, saw China reopen its borders to travellers from abroad with a reported surge in flight bookings.
The official newspaper of the Communist Party, the People’s Daily wrote “Life is moving forward again!” in an editorial praising the government’s virus policy which has moved from “preventing infection” to “preventing severe disease”.
State Xinhua news agency said the country had entered a “new phase” of its response, citing its virus prevention experience, the development of the epidemic and increased vaccination levels.
Changes to the rules mean people will no longer have to quarantine on arrival.
There were emotional scenes at airports and ports on Sunday as people arrived in the country without having to quarantine for the first time in years, many for the Lunar New Year festival which is due in coming days, when many Chinese return to see their families.
Two people embrace at Beijing International Airport after China lifted COVID quarantine requirements for inbound travellers
Following the reopening, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday that direct flights from South Korea to China were close to sold out. South Koreans are the largest group of foreign residents in China.
Among the countries to which flights resumed from China was Thailand, where an initial group of an expected 3,465 passengers arrived on Monday, after the Thai government rescinded a policy announced at the weekend requiring visitors to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
Although China’s move is expected to boost outbound travel, several other nations are demanding negative tests from visitors from China, seeking to contain an outbreak that is overwhelming many of China’s hospitals and crematoriums.
China’s top health officials and state media have repeatedly said COVID infections are peaking across the country and they are playing down the threat now posed by the disease.
Although officially China has reported just 5,272 COVID-related deaths as of 8 January – experts cast doubt over the figures.
Some 3,465 passengers from China were expected to arrive in Thailand on Monday
The World Health Organisation has said China is under-reporting the scale of the outbreak and international health experts estimate more than one million people in the country could die from the disease this year.
It comes as an official reportedly said almost 90% of people in the central province of Henan, China’s third most populous, have now been infected with COVID-19.
China experienced some of the most stringent COVID measures in the world, with lengthy lockdowns and harsh testing regimes.
Authorities began easing restrictions after widespread anti-lockdown protests at the end of last year.
Protests at COVID antigen kit factory
On Saturday, hundreds of protesters clashed with police at a factory producing COVID antigen kits, several videos posted to social media showed.
Read more:
Patients build up outside entrances in hospitals in China
‘Surveillance programme’ to begin random COVID tests for travellers
Online users said the demonstration was over wages and the layoff of several workers by the manufacturer, Zybio, in the central municipality of Chongqing.
One video showed people throwing traffic cones, boxes and stools at police carrying riot shields. Another video, posted on social media platforms such as Twitter and Douyin, showed dozens of protesters chanting “return our money”.
While protests in China are not rare and have focused on issues like labour disputes and COVID lockdown measures, police have cracked down on dissent swiftly, often using forceful tactics.
Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.
Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.
But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.
Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.
Show me the money
Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.
That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.
That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.
Spend it on sport
You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.
The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.
The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.
But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP
Take over Tesla’s rivals
He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.
They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).
But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.
Buy up San Diego
He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.
But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.
Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.
Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.
Do something charitable?
There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.
Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.
If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).
Pay off the credit card
With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.
Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).
But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.
The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.
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