With COVID-19 formally downgraded from a Category A to Category B infectious disease, China will no longer require passengers arriving from abroad to quarantine starting Jan 8, although they will still need a negative nucleic acid test result 48 hours before departure, the National Health Commission announced on Monday.

The move marks a major step forward in China reopening its borders nearly three years after the country imposed strict entry restrictions to prevent imported novel coronavirus infections. Inbound international travelers currently have to quarantine for five days at a centralized facility, followed by three days at home, a requirement that is already down from up to four weeks in the past.

The policy shift is a timely response to the fast-changing epidemic situation, which has entered a new stage with the more transmissible yet less virulent Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.

This is also in answer to the increasing calls of Chinese residents to travel abroad and foreigners to come to China for work and business after three years of pandemic-induced disruptions. Outbound flight bookings reportedly surged by more than 250 percent early on Tuesday in the wake of the lifted restrictions, according to online travel booking platform Trip.com, with the most popular destinations including Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand.

China has always been a major driving force behind economic globalization and is itself a beneficiary of the increasingly integrated global economy. According to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics last month, China contributed up to 38.6 percent to world economic growth from 2013 to 2021, more than the G7 industrialized nations combined.

That China is reopening its borders will instill confidence that the country is resolved to continue to work with other countries to uphold free and fair trade, and ensure the stability of global industry and supply chains. Despite the rising trend of protectionism and anti-globalization in some quarters, China remains committed to its fundamental national policy of opening up to the outside world.

Yet the latest step China has taken to facilitate cross-border personnel flow has prompted some countries such as Japan and India to tighten their border controls targeting Chinese passengers, who will have to test upon arrival.

Hopefully countries will take a coordinated approach with China and base their response on science to ensure safe and smooth cross-border travel, and help contribute to the world's economic recovery.