An Australian woman temporarily living in Beijing was ordered to leave China — because she went jogging in violation of the country’s strict quarantine laws, according to new reports.
The 47-year-old woman, only identified as Ms. Liang, entered the country through Beijing Capital International Airport on March 14 — and spent only a day there before getting in trouble with the law, Asia Wire reported.
In a video that has since gone viral on Chinese social media and posted by CNN International reporter Nectar Gan, Liang — who appeared to have just returned from her jog and wasn’t wearing a face mask — is shown at the door of her rental residence arguing with a health worker who explained to her that she needed to stay home.
International arrivals must self-quarantine under the infection control rules imposed in Beijing.
“I need to go running,” she groused in the clip, translated by the outlet. “I need to work out. If I fall sick, who will take care of me? Will you come?”
At one point during the tense interaction, she yelled, “Help! I’m being harassed!” prompting two police officers wearing face masks to show up at her door.
“I tell you, no matter [if] you’re Chinese or a foreigner, you have to comply with the law of the People’s Republic of China,” one of the officers told her, according to the report. “This is to protect yourself and to protect others.”
As the clips circulated, people flooded social media with calls for the woman to be “repatriated back to Australia.”
On Wednesday, officials with Beijing’s Exit and Entry Administration revoked Liang’s work-type residence permit that was previously valid until September and ordered her to leave within a designated time period.
Officials did not specify the exact deadline.
Liang, who was employed by the Chinese subsidiary of German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, was also swiftly fired from her post.
“According to relevant rules, the company has decided to dismiss the employee, effective immediately,” Bayer China said in a statement translated by CNN.
“All employees of Bayer China should strictly obey the various measures imposed by local governments to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, as well as local law and regulations.”
Both Thursday and Friday, not a single locally transmitted COVID-19 case was reported in China. Now the country has turned its attention to preventing imported cases.