Chinese officials and experts said Friday that the US's move to suspend 44 China-bound flights from the US by four Chinese airlines and shift blame to China's circuit breaker measures on coronaviruses will have a huge impact on the already tight flight supplies between the two countries. The US Transportation Department's order to block 44 passenger flights of four Chinese airlines - Xiamen Airlines, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines was issued on Friday by the US Transportation Department. The suspension will begin on January 30 with Xiamen Airlines' scheduled Los Angeles-to-Xiamen flight and run through March 29 when Air China's Shenzhen-bound flight is scheduled to depart from Los Angeles, according to the order. The four are currently the only Chinese carriers flying between China and the US. The three U.S. carriers are Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines. The blockade of flights was the latest development on disputes over international flights and rules designed to prevent the spread of coronaviruses between the two countries. Previously, China and the US had several rounds of negotiations on the resuming of international flights that were suspended after the outbreak of COVID 19 and agreed to allow limited schedules. The US Transportation Department stated on Friday that the move was made due to Chinese authorities' recent additional circuit breaker actions against Delta, American, and United. Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the US, said Friday that the policy for international passenger flights entering China has been applied in a fair, open and transparent way to Chinese and foreign airlines, as stated by a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the US. Liu urged the US side to stop disrupting and restricting normal passenger flights by Chinese airlines. In response to these actions and in keeping with the US Government's longstanding position with respect to China's use of the 'circuit breaker' measure against US carriers, we are issuing an instant order, the US Transportation Department said. If the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration of China CAAC changes its policies to bring about necessary improved situation for US carriers, the Department is fully prepared to revisit the action it announced in the order, the US Transportation Department said. The US decision to cut Chinese carriers' services came arbitrarily because of the Chinese flight award and circuit breaker policies that have been implemented since 2020, according to an industry observer, Qi Qi, told the Global Times on Saturday. Qi stated that China's policy is not targeted at a specific country. We'll take appropriate measures as long as the flight triggers the circuit breaker mechanism. The US move will have a huge impact on the already tight flight supplies between the two countries because of the political purposes of the move. The CAAC has had to cancel more than 100 international routes to China due to the importation of COVID 19 cases since January 1, with more than 200 flights cancelled, based on calculations from caixin.com. If the number of passengers testing positive reaches five in a flight is changed in April 2021, the airline's flights will be suspended for two weeks. The suspension will last for four weeks if the number of passengers testing positive reaches 10. Delta Air Lines' flight DL 287 from Seattle to Shanghai was turned back midway on December 22. The Shanghai airport's new pandemic-related disinfection requirements were behind the move, according to the company. However, the Chinese Embassy in the US said in a statement the next day that the turnaround was due to China rejecting entry of the flight, as the media quoted some crew members as saying, did not tally with the facts, and that many US airlines had encountered staff shortages.