As COVID-19 rages around Hong Kong at the start of a crucial political year for China and President Xi Jinping, Beijing is anxious not to be embarrassed and compromised by the often-violent protests that shook the city last year.
Hong Kong has stepped up anti-COVID actions in the last week, following Xi’s announcement that the city’s “overriding goal” is to control the escalating situation. These include preparations for mass testing backed by equipment, as well as testing vehicles and personnel from the mainland.
Beijing’s main concern, according to some government experts, is that unless Hong Kong is able to contain the virus and prevent a large number of people from suffering, the city would revert to the instability that plagued the city in 2019, when anti-government rallies caused a serious problem for Xi.
“Beijing recognises that there are still a lot of anti-government, anti-China forces in Hong Kong waiting for an opportunity to return,” Lau Siu-kai, a Chinese government adviser, told Reuters.
“If the pandemic spreads from Hong Kong to the mainland, especially Guangdong,” said Lau, deputy director of the Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a leading think tank directly under China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
Faxed inquiries to China’s primary “Liaison Office” in Hong Kong and China’s cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office received no immediate response.
As the COVID crisis worsens, Hong Kong-based mainland officials, including Luo Huining, the head of China’s Liaison Office, have appealed to Hong Kong tycoons for financial and logistical assistance, while mainland construction teams are rushing to build a 10,000-bed temporary isolation centre on an outlying island.
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