Border quarantine rules apply to all nationalities: judicial officials

Any Chinese or foreign citizen or stateless person who impairs frontier quarantine measures while entering or leaving China shall be equally held accountable in accordance with Chinese laws, officials with the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate said Tuesday.

Chinese authorities have listed six kinds of behaviors that could constitute the crime of impairing frontier quarantine measures in a guideline, targeting individuals who spread or risk spreading a quarantinable infectious disease identified by the Chinese State Council, including plague, cholera, yellow fever and COVID-19.

People infected with quarantinable infectious diseases or suspected epidemic victims who refuse to receive isolated observation or fail to truthfully fill out their health declaration forms at border checkpoints, such as international airports, in China, could face criminal penalties, according to the guideline made public on March 16.