As air travel restrictions begin to relax and some of the world’s business hubs gradually reopen, Asia’s biggest financial centre, Hong Kong, insists on maintaining its strict air travel restrictions.
Although, the semi-autonomous Chinese territory recently reopened to foreign visitors, she did so with some of the harshest quarantine rules imaginable in the world.
In spite of the negative impact the long Covid – 19 closure had on businesses and the attendant frustrations experienced by residents, the government has continued to stand firm in its decision to maintain tight restrictions, emphasizing that its priority is reopening its borders to mainland China and not the rest of the world.
The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, had expressed that though, International travel and business is important, the mainland is more important.
Lam argued that since many Hong Kong-based companies conduct businesses in the mainland, reopening the border to the mainland is critical to the territory’s economy.
Last month, the border cracked open somehow but only one way, allowing only some Chinese residents to enter Hong Kong without quarantine.
For now, the territory seem stuck in a limbo, as it’s been backed into a corner by its own policies with no easy way out. If she reopens to international travel, it almost certainly will experience a spike in infections and lose all chance of reopening with China.
