Asian Angle | Lessons for Hong Kong in its futile pursuit of China’s zero-Covid strategy

The sudden reversal of Beijing’s zero-Covid policy, and Hong Kong’s subsequent easing of its own restrictions, highlights not only the futility of zero-Covid but also reveals that the city’s bid to adhere to the mainland’s stance has been a fool’s errand.

While many commentators have hailed the Hong Kong government’s recent decision to abolish the 0+3 scheme and drop scanning requirements, it is in fact an indictment of its policy planning and learning capabilities that this latest round of relaxation comes at least six months too late.

As a point of comparison, Singapore abolished almost all quarantine requirements for inbound travellers, got rid of its SafeEntry app, and ended its outdoor mask mandate in March. Hong Kong could have followed suit soon after, but authorities took more than eight months to catch up with these moves, and pointless masking rules remain.

The delays in getting rid of many of its Covid restrictions from 2020 have damaged Hong Kong’s status as a financial hub and affected its people’s mental well-being unnecessarily. The city’s economy shrank by more than 3 per cent in the first three-quarters of this year even as other developed Asian economies grew at a healthy clip. Hong Kong’s zero-Covid stance also did not save more lives compared to the rest of developed Asia.

Now that the mainland’s zero-Covid policy is in tatters, Hong Kong would look even more foolish if it were to maintain the rest of its pandemic restrictions.

The mainland’s zero-Covid U-turn should be a wake-up call for analysts and commentators who believe Chinese authorities are pragmatic, adaptive, and capable of taking the long view. Zero-Covid represented the very opposite of these qualities; its abrupt reversal may also reveal how unprepared local governments are for a sudden transition to a mitigation strategy.