ON Jan. 18, SunStar carried a report titled: “Consul: 700K Chinese tourists visited Central Visayas in 2019.” People’s Republic of China Consular Attache Jiang Wen declared that many mainland Chinese will continue to flock to Cebu, given several direct routes from Cebu to several Chinese cities.
The number of Chinese tourists who visited Central Visayas in 2019 reportedly reached 700,000. There are currently 36 flights a week between Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) to several Chinese airports. Consul Jia Li said China is the Philippines’ top trading partner and the largest source of foreign investments. As it happens, 2020 is the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Philippines diplomatic relations.
Unsaid in all this is the fact on President Rodrigo Duterte’s pivot towards China in which he has turned a blind eye to the UN ruling on Philippine sovereignty over its territory which China has been claiming, having made many incursions into some of our northern islands.
On Jan. 22, SunStar’s front page highlighted: “Boy confined in Cebu with Coronavirus.” Travelling with his mother from Wuhan, China, the boy had come to study English in Cebu. He arrived with a high temperature and was promptly confined in one of the city’s hospitals. Governor Gwendolyn Garcia announced earlier that there was a thermal scanner installed at the MCIA, which screens arrivals. Anyone found to have fever is detained and quarantined.
Having lived in Hong Kong for years, including the time 18 years ago when the deadly Sars virus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) killed almost 300 in Hong Kong and thousands in China, I shudder at this latest news. When the epidemic broke out, my two daughters living in the US urged me to leave Hong Kong. In California, I followed the news of how Hong Kong coped with the epidemic. Four months later, when the territory was declared clear of the virus, I returned to my work in Hong Kong.
The Sars virus originated in Foshan County where the source was found among civet cats sold in markets. People from that area who traveled abroad had spread the virus, which medics struggled to treat and contain.
From the start, Hong Kong’s efficient health department began to monitor Sars cases, keeping in touch with the World Health Organization (WHO), which issued a global alert. The Sars virus hit Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore, but not South Korea.
Several Hong Kong doctors and nurses treating Sars patients fell ill and a few died. There was panic in the streets, with Hong Kongers wearing masks on the street, buses, trams and trains. While in the US, I saw a newsphoto of little girls practicing their ballet at the bar, all wearing masks.
Today’s coronavirus (called thus because, seen under the microscope, it’s shaped like a crown) was initially said not to be as deadly as Sars, but the latest figures on cases and deaths in China thus far reported show that belief to be wrong. This time, the Chinese authorities have been quite transparent about the situation, unlike during the Sars crisis when they initially tried to suppress reporting the disease. At that time, the virus was known to be transmitted from animals to humans, when it was found that civet cats sold in Foshan markets were the source of the virus.
The present virus so far is known to be transmitted from humans to humans. News around the region is that countries are taking steps to guard against the spread of the virus. In the US, West Coast airports are now relying on their thermal scanners to monitor arrivals from China. Besides the case of the Chinese boy hospitalized in Cebu, one case was reported in Brisbane, Australia.
Our tourism officials may rejoice at the large numbers of Chinese tourists that come to this country since they inject revenue into local industries. But one wonders if having to pay the price of acquiring a deadly epidemic is worth it.