President Joe Biden will now require visitors from China to submit a negative coronavirus test before they can enter the United States—after claiming in 2020 that President Trump's reaction to the COVID outbreak was “fanning the flames” of “hate, fear and xenophobia” against Asian Americans at the start of the pandemic.
Starting January 5, all travelers from China via air will be required to submit a negative COVID-19 test in order to be able to enter the country “within two days of their departure from airports in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau,” Politico reported.
In January 2020, the Trump administration imposed travel restrictions for travelers arriving from China, which is where many experts believe that the coronavirus originated.
Biden called many of these rules racist in May 2020, claiming they were “denials, delays and distractions, many of which were nakedly xenophobic.”
“The pandemic has unleashed familiar forces of hate, fear and xenophobia that he always flames … that have always existed in this society,” Biden declared.
“But this president brought it with him, has brought with it a new rash of racial messages, verbal and physical attacks and other acts of hate, some subtle, some overt, against the Asian American and Pacific Islanders.”
Biden also stepped up his game just two months later, claiming Trump was a racist, and not only because of his COVID policy.
“We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has,” he claimed.
