welcome to bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin in china where authorities have stopped issuing short term visas to individuals from south korea and japan, in retaliation for covid restrictions imposed on chinese travellers. inside the country, state media are downplaying risks from the virus. officials from several major cities and provinces have said the infection rates are past their peak and officials in beijing say it s discriminatory to single out chinese travellers. translation: regrettably, some countries disregard science and their own covid situation, they are bent on imposing restrictions on china. china firmly reject this and will take reciprocal measures, we called the relevant countries to base their measures on facts and science and take proportionate measures and not use this to engage in political manipulations. we can now speak to the travel writer and blogger, steve rohan, who worked in china for six years. he joins