There is no doubt that China is only insufficiently fulfilling its responsibility in the Corona crisis.
Already at the beginning of the pandemic, which began there, international scientists urged the authorities in Beijing to be more willing to cooperate - without success, of course.
The strategy of silence now continues.
Foreign experts and governments can only estimate how high the wave of infections in the country will be after the sudden lifting of many restrictions.
There is also no information about which variants of the virus are currently spreading in China.
The international community is therefore concerned with the question of how to protect its citizens from possible health risks from China for good reason.
But not every measure that is sold politically as an effective instrument is likely to have the claimed effect.
Some of the demands that are currently circulating are more likely to be assigned to the sphere of symbolic politics.
Experience shows that the suspension of flight connections at best slows down the spread of SARS-CoV-2, but does not prevent it.
Two years ago, Germany temporarily cut all connections from South Africa and Great Britain, but the variants there have nevertheless come into the country.
As long as travelers use turnstiles or change modes of transport, the impact of lockouts is likely to be modest.
Requiring negative tests from travelers from China sounds more effective than it really is.
Tests can be falsely negative and travelers can become infected even after the swab.
Instead of relying on restrictions, Berlin should step up its efforts to quickly identify new variants.
Experts complain that the number of genetically sequenced samples has fallen sharply.
But this knowledge is essential in order to be able to draw the right conclusions.
Anyone who has to live with the virus should at least know it well enough.