Nearly a week after seven mainland Chinese experts arrived in Hong Kong as part of a first batch to help the city fight the third wave of coronavirus infections, the dominant reaction to the gesture appears to be anxiety and apprehension that I appreciate.
The team, along with 60 other members to later abide by, was sent to Hong Kong to help with universal testing and design and expand at least two makeshift hospitals to ease the stresses of the overburdened fitness system, reeling from 3,938 cases so far, adding 47 deaths.
Negative reactions in some neighborhoods persisted even after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet Ngor announced Friday that citizens would be eligible for loose coronavirus control as the city battled its worst Covid-19 outbreak.
Universal tests, which will be voluntary and available in two weeks, will be conducted with the assistance of a team of mainland Chinese medical experts and personal laboratories.
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In the pre-announcement era, embroiled in a secret that fueled speculation, critics said, the government found itself in a delicate situation, criticized by all parties.
Opposition politicians warned of the dangers of shifting non-public knowledge and DNA to the continent’s authorities, while Lam’s own team of local experts resisted the concept of universal testing, saying it was neither profitable nor mandatory when the concentrate was in vulnerable groups.
In an attempt to resolve privacy issues in the community, Lam promised that the identities of the tested people would not be disclosed to the labs.
“I hope that society can put an end to all kinds of conspiracies, defamation, defamation and the creation of clashes, and not undermine relations between the central government and Hong Kong, especially since it was the [city’ government] that sought the continent’s help this time,” says the Director-General.
“In particular, I hope that relations between the central government and Hong Kong will be damaged.”
He said that with the help of mainland China, the government would expand network repair services at the AsiaWorld-Expo exhibition center and nearby, offering up to 2,000 beds.
At the same time, 3 continent-connected laboratories would work with experts across the border to develop the capacity of universal testing.
On paper, the request for assistance – which was made public at the end of last month – and the continent’s reaction risk-free and generous.
In pictures, smiles and handshakes when the first team arrived last Sunday warned that things were going well.
But the friendly atmosphere of a welcome reception organized through the government stands in stark contrast to the demonstrations organized through district councillors on Wednesday in front of a hotel in Yau Ma Tei where the continental team stayed.
Similar scenes took place on Friday, when the government plans to build a transitive lab in a local park for the continent’s experts to conduct coronavirus tests. An organization of opposition district councillors came forward to protest.
Analysts said they were not surprised because the supply had become politicized, as with almost every single challenge involving the continent, and came here at a time when the city was recovering from the implementation of Beijing’s new national security law.
But others also pointed to the administration’s inability to provide concrete plans on how aid would be delivered to the continent, adding that lack of data fuels confusion and apprehension.
Professor Ray Yep Kin Man, a political scientist at the city university, said the government is guilty of not providing enough data to the public.
“The government has not bothered to inform the media about the continental team’s activities by assisting in the ability to test,” he said.
“The government has appointed the transit hospital to be built next to the World’s Asia Expo as the Hong Kong edition of The Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, an impromptu medical facility for other people inflamed by coronavirus, which only makes some Hong Kongers uncomfortable.
“This reinforces the belief of some Hong Kongers that the government should please the mainland government.”
But Lau Siu Kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Studies group in Hong Kong and Macau, said the government simply forgets the “minor voices still opposed.”
Instead, he advised the government to give examples of the good luck of aid on the continent elsewhere.
“China has been a great success in building these transit hospitals at full speed. The government takes note of this and tells the public with those main points and examples,” he said.
The reaction of local fitness professionals also confused the situation, which questioned whether experts would meet the same expected criteria in the city. For example, being registered as medical lab technologists, some said.
On Wednesday, non-professional members of the Hong Kong Medical Council called on doctors, nurses or medical laboratory technologists on the continent to sign according to existing procedures before they can help the city.
At his press convention on Friday, Lam said experts would be exempt from 14-day quarantine and also wanted to undergo pre-registration.
“Let me emphasize that those other people who come to us to develop the ability to test are not other unqualified people,” he said.
“So make no mistake that these people are not qualified for medical lab tests and we rate them. No, they are qualified in the continental system, but they must operate in accordance with Hong Kong’s legal system, so our law provides exemption for certain categories of other people.”
But the skeptics calmed down. Alex Lam Chi Yau, one of the board’s non-professional members, said: “The public has little data on the 3 personal laboratories involved, while the continent’s experts can simply go through the regulations set to register, but the passing government chose to do so.
“It is inevitable that the public will have doubts about the reliability and protection of the evidence, and doubts can hardly go away. We are others from the continent because we have our regulations and practices.”
Lam described fears that people’s knowledge would be transported to the continent as “conspiracies” and “rumors” that led her to hold her press convention earlier, when her government was originally going to provide a more detailed plan next week.
The president of the Hospital Authority, Henry Fan Hung-ling, also dismissed the rumors as unjustified and said the continent would speed up the evidence.
“They will have to be welcomed with open arms. There’s no doubt your medical team is coming to administer medical treatment,” Fan said.
After Lam asked for help on the mainland last July while Hong Kong suffered 12 consecutive days of three-digit Covid-19 infections, the Hong Kong Office of Affairs and Macau issued a confirmation of his application.
A closed circuit television from the public broadcaster temporarily followed on 1 August, suggesting that Hong Kong’s 7.5 million citizens would get loose virus tests with those on the mainland, just as another 11 million people were tested in just two weeks in Wuhan, point 0 of the virus. . epidemic in China.
But when the seven-member continental team arrived, with few main points revealed, the hypothesis increased.
“The public is confident in what these experts will do, raising considerations about whether people’s knowledge will be disseminated and why they are allowed to stay in the city,” said Chinese university political scientist Ivan Choy Chi Keung.
“The government has explained at all how to deal with cultural and regulatory differences.”
For Choy and others, the timing of aid may have been worse given the cross-border tensions caused by anti-government protests and the enactment of the National Security Act.
“The continent’s feelings and mistrust will continue every time the continent tries to comment or worry about local affairs,” he said.
No wonder, then, that opposition lawmakers and district councillors have prejudiced the decision.
Roy Tam Hoi Pong, a district councillor for the new Democrats who joined the protest, said he opposed the presence of mainland Chinese scientists in Hong Kong because the city’s complex medical industry could cope.
Li Xiao Bing, a Hong Kong expert and law professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, said reservations in some parts of Hong Kong reflect differences in systems between the city and the continent.
“The reserves [on the data] may be partly due to the anticontinental emotions of some other people in Hong Kong,” he said.
“This is just a disturbing noise, and I’m sure the central government will have the patience to win the participation of the Hong Kongers in their collaboration to combat the pandemic.”
“What is is that continental groups sent to Hong Kong show their professional qualities and make their paintings transparent.”
Professor David Hui Shu Cheong, one of the government’s advisers on the pandemic, said the continent’s offer will not be rejected.
“As advisors, we provide public aptitude recommendations to the government, while the continent’s experts revel in building transitional hospitals at top speed and can provide technical recommendations on mass testing. We have other functions,” he said.
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This article was first published in South China Morning Post.