At Lunar New Year, Thailand pines for its missing Chinese tourists as Covid-19 keeps them away ahead of the Winter Olympics

At a cliffside restaurant on Thailand’s Koh Larn, where squat teak dining tables overlook an empty white-sand bay, manager Sutthiea Saengsaswi says the last time Chinese tourists were around for the Lunar New Year celebrations her takings went up to around US$6,000 a day. Now they are just US$300 a day.But this year, for the second year running, there are no Chinese to be seen. Strict quarantine measures Beijing has implemented ahead of the Winter Olympics as part of its zero-tolerance approach…