Vice-Premier Han Zheng, the State leader who oversees Hong Kong and Macao affairs, pledged Beijing’s firm support for the city during a meeting with the special administrative region’s deputies to the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People on March 7. His remarks on putting the fifth wave of the coronavirus outbreak under control dominated the headlines in the local media the next day, making the central government’s timely and sufficient support household knowledge that boosts residents’ morale.
Two days later, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor timely reassured the public in her interview with Xinhua News Agency that the mainland resources will be well leveraged to maximize their effect. The leaders’ resolution and remarks lit up the light at the end of the tunnel.
Han’s remarks reminded the general public that the central government has been closely monitoring the pandemic in the SAR and has a full picture of the situation. On top of that, Beijing is determined to respond to every request proposed by the SAR government and beyond, while Hong Kong is ready to make the most of what the State has offered.
I fully support the notion that Hong Kong must rely on the Greater Bay Area and turn it into a ready-made platform to consolidate its entrenched advantages in the financial sector and to seize new opportunities in technology and innovation
For example, mobile cabin hospitals and quarantine facilities are being built and completed with the mainland’s help. Teams of medical experts have been dispatched to Hong Kong from the mainland. Medical supplies and daily necessities have also been transported into Hong Kong by water and rail without delay. All these are practical and much-needed support for which I, like Lam, feel gratitude.
Han’s remarks also reveal that the central government has an overall grasp of the pandemic in the SAR. The pain points, such as the low vaccination rate among vulnerable age groups, are plaguing the city currently. The top officials in Beijing, on the other hand, have sufficiently considered them. Han stated resolutely that strong and decisive measures must be taken to reduce the mortality rate. To maintain normal life in Hong Kong, the central government has expanded the supply of fresh food products through enhanced logistics arrangements; the benevolence and kindness have received a warm welcome among Hong Kong residents who stand bewildered in the empty supermarkets hit by waves of panic purchasing.
I fully appreciated Han’s remarks that fighting the pandemic is a shared responsibility, and that merely relying on the chief executive alone or one single government department would be a dangerous misconception. All civil servants and every sector of society should play their roles; the private health and medical sector, with their expertise and facilities, should shoulder their portion in the battle.
The unprecedented pandemic demands a massive improvement, if not upgrading, on all fronts of the city’s medical and healthcare system. The volatile situation demands timely responses. Lam and the SAR government must be versatile and vigilant in adopting comprehensive measures and make much of the support bestowed by the central government. Meanwhile, every resident in Hong Kong must be promptly mobilized and stand in solidarity with the government and experts to break the transmission chains in the community as swiftly as possible.
To everyone’s relief, the industrial and commercial sectors in the city responded promptly to the call of fighting against COVID-19. The textile and garment industry, particularly, has stepped forward in developing virus-resisting gloves for better protection of the front-line fighters. The innovative gloves use yarn that can protect the skin from being infected. The invention, possibly the first of its kind in the world, has been one of the best gifts and donations to the brave taxi drivers who volunteer to ferry COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms to designated government clinics. The industry is now considering providing additional pairs of anti-COVID-19 gloves to other front-line workers.
Since February, big players in the textile and garment industry have already donated the best-quality most-protective masks and rapid test kits to organizations and citizens in need. Hong Kong witnessed an increasing number of volunteers to distribute the donations and resources all over the city when the situation was worsening in March.
I fully support the notion that Hong Kong must rely on the Greater Bay Area and turn it into a ready-made platform to consolidate its entrenched advantages in the financial sector and to seize new opportunities in technology and innovation. Hong Kong’s conventional industries, propelled with technological and innovative forces, will be upgraded and transformed into a new shape that generates profits and opportunities. Though the uphill battle against COVID-19 will last for a while, the city underpinned by the “Lion Rock spirit” is confident that it can outwit the trials and tests and resurrect a strong economy with the deep-rooted problems being solved with the overall improvement in the city’s governance. Hope for a brighter future never ends in Hong Kong.
The author is a Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.