Hong Kong reported record high COVID rates in early February, with more than 2,000 daily cases (Guardian). Having successfully controlled the pandemic until the Omicron wave began in December 2021, Hong Kong is facing its greatest COVID surge yet, with the first fatalities since September 2021. Bracing itself against significant supply chain shortages as truck drivers test positive, Hong Kong’s dependence on China increases as China pledges to provide aid in the form of quarantine facilities, medical workers, testing capabilities, and exports of vegetables and fresh food (Reuters). With the implementation of a vaccine pass and requirements for mass testing, researchers worry that increased digital surveillance could threaten Hong Kong residents’ privacy and security (Bloomberg). While Hong Kong’s “dynamic zero infection” may have previously kept cases low, the current surge suggests that this method is unsustainable.
Chaung Shuk-kwan, a senior health official in Hong Kong said, “Our healthcare system is overloaded, it’s really beyond capacity” (Reuters). “As long as Hong Kong asks, the motherland will surely respond…Hand in hand we will surely be able to overcome the epidemic soon,” said a spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in China, reiterating China’s support for Hong Kong with a nationalist message (Reuters).
Xiameng Lu, the director of Eurasia Group’s geo-technology practice warned about the required usage of contact tracing apps in Hong Kong: “the new mandate could spark a major public outcry over potentially inappropriate government access to personal data given the distrust between the Hong Kong government and public” (Bloomberg).
Currently, 83% of Hong Kong residents ages 12 and up have received one dose of a COVID vaccine and 74% have received two doses. However, the older populations, ages 70 and up, are only 50% vaccinated (Hong Kong Government COVID Statistics). This discrepancy stems from recommendations for older people to avoid possible vaccine side effects when Hong Kong was COVID-free and the danger seemed less acute, according to the Guardian. Hong Kong’s priority should be to vaccinate its older residents and impress upon them the importance of having the vaccine, the side effects of which are far less dangerous than the disease itself.
As for security, Hong Kong should ensure that the information it collects through its contact tracing app is unavailable to Beijing. Despite Hong Kong’s agreement with China to maintain a degree of autonomy following independence from the British in the 1990s, Beijing has been imposing more control over the city recently. The 2020 National Security Law was passed in response to protests in 2019 against Chinese overreach in Hong Kong. Arguing for its necessity to restore stability on the island, China has used the National Security Law to collect information and arrest hundreds of journalists, activists, and pro-democracy leaders in Hong Kong (Council on Foreign Relations). According to Bloomberg, Beijing has access to personal data of Hong Kong residents on the “basis of public health and safety,” though this information could easily be used to track down dissenters. When Hong Kong employs mass compulsory testing and vaccination passports through an app, they should ensure that their residents’ information remains protected and used only for public health safety programs.
Finally, Hong Kong’s “dynamic zero infection” policy is unsustainable in the long term. Lockdowns, school closures, isolations, supply chain disruptions, and travel restrictions will ultimately harm Hong Kong’s residents and economy more than they will help. Attempting, probably futilely, to eradicate COVID from Hong Kong will only increase Hong Kong’s dependence on China for health and nutritional necessities and jeopardize the future of Hong Kong’s independence.
