China legal update: NCP Outbreak: New Policy on Quarantine Requirement

Legal News

In order to prevent and control the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (“NCP”) epidemic, both domestic infection and imported infection, one of most attention-grabbing measures adopted by Chinese government is mandatory quarantine requirement. Based on the current condition, Beijing government has rolled out some updated polices which stipulate some exceptions to the quarantine requirements. Shanghai and Guangzhou government insist on the quarantine requirements on inbound oversea travelers strictly. We hereby summarized the most updated information in the below chart:

I. Beijing

II. Shanghai & Guangzhou

On April 17, 2020, Beijing Municipal government announced some preferential policies to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We hereby summarized the most updated polices on the rent for your reference.⁸

As the epidemic continues to progress worldwide, China may gradually update the quarantine rules. Travelers with plans to visit China are advised to pay close attention to the notice issued by relevant government departments. As always, Asiallians remains at your services and our teams are currently mobilized in all our offices in China, but also in Hong Kong, Taipei.

On March 20, 2020, Shanghai government rolled out a series of subsidy policies to certain enterprises to relieve the difficulty of operation and promote the production of enterprise.⁹ We hereby provide you the most updated information on local policies that have been released in Shanghai.

In a notification to Chinese and foreign citizens issued on April 18, 2020, the Foreign Affairs Office of Guangdong Province called for no discrimination against foreigners during the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the government promised to treat all individuals equally, regardless of nationality, race, gender or age. Especially, it is forbidden for any departments, enterprises, organizations, or individuals to restrict or refuse foreigners’ access to hotels, shopping centers, restaurants, parks, medical institutions, public transports and other places of daily life. In addition, for any reasonable request concerning epidemic prevention and control, foreigners can ask help from the multilingual service hotline 1258088 (24-hour available).

Moreover, it is stated that Covid-19 prevention and control measures issued by the government applies equally to everyone as well, and foreigners must also actively cooperate with the government and obey the Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control rules.

(http://www.gdfao.gov.cn/Item/26669.aspx)

China’s Two Sessions are the names for meetings of two of China’s major political bodies – the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC), which are the most important political meeting in China. The Two Sessions are normally convened in March each year; however, due to the NCP outbreak, it was announced in February 2020 that the Two Sessions will be postponed.

Beijing government finally released that the Two Sessions will be held in late May. Specifically, the third plenary session of the 13th NPC will be convened on May 22, 2020, while the third plenary session of the 13th CPPCC will be started on May 21, 2020.

Every year during the Two Sessions, many draft legislations will be discussed.

(http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202004/c13d
00b23a39415fa21eb2609ea1cd25.shtml)

1. See: http://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zcjd/
202004/t20200421_1860257.html

2.See: http://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zcjd
/202004/t20200421_1860257.html

3. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/OUFr2NUKGiJDi1glQpsPXQ

4. Currently, most of the districts/cities in China are recorded as low risk. For example, all districts from Wuhan, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen are recorded as low risk. However, some districts in Heilongjiang province are recorded as medium risk. For checking the updated status of each district of a city, please kindly refer to the government website:
http://bmfw.www.gov.cn/yqfxdjcx/index.html
Red color represents high risk; orange color represents medium risk; green color represents low risk.

5. See: http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/nw2/nw2314/
nw2315/nw4411/u21aw1435986.html
Please bear in mind that for diplomatic personnel entering China and personnel engaged in important economic, trade, scientific research and technical cooperation, if there are other provisions, they shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions. We will keep a close eye on the relevant provisions.

6. See: http://www.gd.gov.cn/gdywdt/bmdt/
content/post_2952990.html 
It is worthy to note that as of March 25, all non-Hong Kong residents will not be able to enter Hong Kong after arriving at Hong Kong International Airport by air from overseas countries or regions.

7. See: http://www.sz.gov.cn/cn/xxgk/zfxxgj/
zwdt/content/post_7050170.html

8. See: http://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengcefagui/
202004/t20200417_1814532.html

Feel free to contact asiallians@asiallians.com for more information.