Locals Call Out Tourists for Cutting in Line at Coronavirus Testing Site in China

It is unclear when the incident happened, but it occurred at a medical facility in the city’s Laoshan district, according to SupChina.

 

In the video, three Americans can be seen in front of the line after allegedly line-jumping while people behind them can be heard complaining in Chinese, Shanghaiist reported.

One man in front of the line tries to call the police, but one of the line cutters snatches a piece of paper out of his hand and throws it to the ground.

At one point, the American man shouted at the man in line and said, “There’s 8 million Chinese in the USA.”

The man tried to justify their line cutting by arguing that they were told to cut the line by the “Chinese government” and that they were “just signing” some papers.

That’s when someone behind them said, “Don’t come back forever,” to which he replied, “Then tell the eight million Chinese to get out!”

The woman who took the video mentioned that the staff told the Chinese travelers in line to let the tourists go first.

“We locals waited for a long time to enter the site. The staff told us it’s their way to show respect for foreigners,” she told reporters.

In a statement posted by the Laoshan’s public health committee regarding the controversy on Wednesday, local health authorities apologized for the line-jumpers and vowed to adopt “more effective measures” to ensure that the lines are in order.

The statement, however, failed to address claims that the tourists were allowed to cut the line.

The tension between tourists and locals comes after two travelers in China were asked to move out of the country for disobeying quarantine rules.

The first incident involved an Australian woman who went out for a jog in Beijing despite the rules telling her otherwise. Another tourist in a separate incident threw a cell phone at a community health worker after he was asked to put on a face mask.

Feature Image Screenshot via 按钮新闻