Hong Kong’s leaders have spent much of their political capital over the past two years eradicating the opposition rather than vaccinating their most vulnerable residents. Now, as cases spike to fresh highs, city officials are going even further to align with mainland China.
Over the weekend, Chief Secretary John Lee met with Chinese officials in neighboring Shenzhen to seek assistance with securing adequate food supplies and building a makeshift hospital for COVID-19 patients — the latest sign of how the once-autonomous financial hub continues to grow ever-more dependent on Beijing as it sticks with China’s strategy to push for zero cases rather than open to the world.
Hong Kong’s worst outbreak since the virus emerged more than two years ago is also allowing the government to increase surveillance of the population with a more-intrusive contact-tracing app — a step authorities had resisted even after using a Beijing-imposed national security law to put key democracy activists in jail.