Frontier Health and Quarantine Law of the People’s Republic of China.

This Law is formulated in order to prevent infectious diseases from spreading into or out of the country, to carry out frontier health and quarantine inspection and to protect human health.

Frontier health and quarantine offices shall be set up at international seaports, airports and ports of entry at land frontiers and boundary rivers (hereinafter referred to as “frontier ports”) of the People’s Republic of China. These offices shall carry out the quarantining and monitoring of infectious diseases, and health inspection in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

Health administration departments under the State Council shall be in charge of frontier health and quarantine work throughout the country.

Quarantine Inspection

Infectious diseases specified in this Law shall include quarantinable infectious diseases and infectious diseases to be monitored.

Quarantinable infectious diseases shall include plague, cholera, yellow fever and other infectious diseases determined and announced by the State Council.

Infectious diseases to be monitored shall be determined and announced by health administration departments under the State Council.

Persons, conveyances and transport equipment, as well as articles such as baggage, goods and postal parcels that may transmit quarantinable infectious diseases, shall undergo quarantine inspection upon entering or exiting the country. No entry or exit shall be allowed without the permission of a frontier health and quarantine office. Specific measures for implementation of this Law shall be stipulated in detailed regulations.

On discovering a quarantinable infectious disease or a disease suspected to be quarantinable, a frontier health and quarantine office shall, in addition to taking necessary measures, immediately notify the local health administration department; at the same time, it shall make a report to the health administration department under the State Council by the most expeditious means possible, within 24 hours at the latest. Post and telecommunications departments shall give priority to transmissions of reports of epidemic diseases.

Messages exchanged between the People’s Republic of China and foreign countries on the epidemic situation of infectious diseases shall be handled by the health administration department under the State Council in conjunction with other departments concerned.

When a quarantinable infectious disease is prevalent abroad or within China, the State Council may order relevant sections of the border to be blockaded or adopt other emergency measures.

Persons and conveyances on entering the country shall be subject to quarantine inspection at designated places at the first frontier port of their arrival. Except for harbour pilots, no person shall be allowed to embark on or disembark from any means of transport and no articles such as baggage, goods or postal parcels shall be loaded or unloaded without the health and quarantine inspector’s permission. Specific measures for the implementation of this Law shall be stipulated in detailed regulations.

Persons and conveyances exiting the country shall be subject to quarantine inspection at the last frontier port of departure.

When foreign ships or airborne vehicles anchor or land at places other than frontier ports in China, the persons in charge of the ships or airborne vehicles must report immediately to the nearest frontier health and quarantine office or to the local health administration department. Except in cases of emergency, no person shall be allowed to embark on or disembark from the ship or airborne vehicle, and no articles such as baggage, goods and postal parcels shall be loaded or unloaded without the permission of a frontier health and quarantine office or the local health administration department.

When a quarantinable infectious disease, a disease suspected to be quarantinable or a death due to an unidentified cause other than accidental harm is discovered at the frontier port, the relevant department at the frontier port and the person in charge of the conveyance must report immediately to the frontier health and quarantine office and apply for provisional quarantine inspection.

According to the results of an inspection made by quarantine doctors, the frontier health and quarantine office shall sign and issue a quarantine certificate for entry or exit to a conveyance either uncontaminated by any quarantinable infectious disease or already given decontamination treatment.

A person having a quarantinable infectious disease shall be placed in isolation by the frontier health and quarantine office for a period determined by the results of the medical examination, while a person suspected of having a quarantinable infectious disease shall be kept for inspection for a period determined by the incubation period of such disease.

The corpse of anyone who died from a quarantinable infectious disease must be cremated at a nearby place.

Any conveyance subject to entry quarantine inspection shall be disinfected, deratted, treated with insecticides or given other sanitation measures when found to be in any of the following conditions:

(1) having come from an area where a quarantinable infectious disease is epidemic;
(2) being contaminated by a quarantinable infectious disease; or

(3) revealing the presence of rodents which affect human health or insects which are carriers of disease.

Apart from exceptional cases, when the person in charge of the foreign conveyance refuses to allow sanitation measures to be taken, the conveyance shall be allowed to leave the frontier of the People’s Republic of China without delay under the supervision of the frontier health and quarantine office.

A frontier health and quarantine office shall conduct sanitation inspections and disinfect, derate, treat with insecticides or apply other sanitation measures to articles such as baggage, goods and postal parcels that come from an epidemic area and are contaminated by a quarantinable infectious disease or may act as a vehicle of a quarantinable infectious disease.

A consignor or an agent for the transportation of a corpse or human remains into or out of the country must declare the matter to a frontier health and quarantine office; transport thereof, in either direction across the border, shall not be allowed until sanitary inspection proves satisfactory and an entry or exit permit is given.