Other governments have argued that a lack of information about variants from China, and its refusal to share Covid data, is putting the world at risk of a massive wave of reinfections.
China has denied the claim, adding that it expects new variants to be more infectious but less severe.
Bejing will continue to require a negative PCR test before departure for arrivals into its own country, but has said it will stop insisting infected arrivals to go into quarantine from January 8.
Mr Harper, who campaigned against stringent Covid restrictions from the backbenches during the pandemic, said: "The policy for arrivals from China is primarily about collecting information that the Chinese government is not sharing with the international community."
Under measures announced by Health Secretary Steve Barclay, passengers flying from China into England from Thursday will be required to take a Covid test before boarding a plane.
The Government will also carry out surveillance testing of a sample of passengers to try to spot new variants of the virus which could pose a threat.
There are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland but ministers said they are working with the devolved administrations to implement the measures UK-wide.
Mr Harper called Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's approach a "sensible, balanced proposition" to deal with the potential spread of Covid from China.
"This is about a country, China, which isn't sharing the health data with the global health system that we expect everybody to do,” he said.
"That is why we have put this temporary precautionary measure in place as China opens up its borders.
"We are doing two things: we are requiring people who fly from China to have a pre-departure test so they have got to show that they are negative before they get on that flight, and when they get to the United Kingdom, the UK Health Security Agency will take a sample of passengers and test them.
"That is so that we get that information into our health system and we can track the virus that is coming from China.
"That, I think, is a very sensible, balanced proposition which I think helps keep people in the UK safe but doesn't put any restrictions on how people in the UK are able to operate."
