Just a few days shy of the start of 2023, health officials in the Biden administration have announced that effective January 5th, new restrictions will be put in place on travelers visiting the United States from China, which include proof of a negative COVID test.

Bloomberg News reports that “travelers coming directly from China or who were in the country 10 days before their departure to the US will be required to show either a negative PCR or antigen test for the coronavirus” before they will be allowed into the country. This comes in response to an unconfirmed report from the Chinese government that just last week, tens of millions in the country “may have been infected” with COVID-19 in one day.

Similar moves have also been made by Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and India.

The decision by the United States also comes after the Biden State Department issued a travel advisory on December 23rd urging people to think twice about traveling “to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the Macau SAR, due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, and COVID-19-related restrictions.”

As many will recall, when Donald Trump was president he was pilloried by the media and Democrats, including then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, for allegedly engaging in “xenophobia” after instituting pandemic-based travel restrictions on China. For instance, there were these comments from Trump in March 2020:

“I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the “borders” from China – against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!”

This was Biden’s response:

Stop the xenophobic fear-mongering. Be honest. Take responsibility. Do your job. https://t.co/nQ5aLVrpyb

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 18, 2020

There was also this:

In March of 2020, Joe Biden said “Banning all travel from Europe or any other part of the world may slow it but as we’ve seen, it will not stop it. pic.twitter.com/9UoNFBowE7

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 28, 2022

And on the day after Trump’s China travel ban was made official, Biden tweeted this:

We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 1, 2020

This is not the first time Joe Biden has been accused of being a hypocrite when it comes to restricting travel from other countries to the U.S. over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

Just days into his presidency, the Biden White House announced restrictions would be put in place against South Africa, Brazil, the UK, and Ireland.

In November of that same year, restrictions were again put in place for South Africa, as well as Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi at the urging of Biden’s chief medical advisor Dr. Tony Fauci.

It just once again goes to show that it’s okay when a Democrat does it. But when it’s a Republican … well, you know the usual drill by this point.

Related: Travelers Take to Social Media to Share Surreal Videos, Photos of Southwest Airlines Delays