My Take | Quarantine furore says much about what’s wrong with HK

As far as violent protests go, the flare-up in the border town of Fanling on Sunday was a minor incident. But it should serve as a good example of what’s wrong with Hong Kong today: government stupidity vs nihilistic rioters and arsonists.

I have every sympathy for those neighbours who object to a proposed plan to set up the newly completed and still unoccupied Fai Ming Estate as a potential quarantine site for the emerging coronavirus outbreak. I wouldn’t want such patients and medical personnel to set up camp in my neighbourhood.

There are several residential estates such as Yung Shing Court as well as primary and secondary schools in the vicinity. The government has clarified that there is no plan at present to use the facility and that the Department of Health is only renovating it just in case it is needed in the event of an outbreak.

But if I were a local resident, I would naturally ask: can’t you do your planning somewhere else? There are plenty of unused government sites much further away from residential areas, and even outlying islands. Why here?

Locals have every right to be concerned. But then black-clad individuals showed up, digging up bricks, putting up roadblocks and setting estate offices on fire. Sensing the loss of momentum after almost eight months of uninterrupted civil unrest, radicals are now exploiting every opportunity to try to wreak havoc. But fewer and fewer people respond to their appeals nowadays.

The city is on the verge of a potential outbreak. Now is the time to call it quits if they really love Hong Kong as they profess. Many radicals, though, clearly hate much more than they love, and would do anything to keep up the protest violence.

One tactic is to make an anniversary of every widely reported anti-government incident as an excuse to cause more mayhem.