'No Eased Quarantine Under Beijing's Zero-Covid Plan'

Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien says there’s no chance of Hong Kong relaxing quarantine restrictions on international arrivals as long as Beijing maintains its zero-Covid strategy.

Tien's comments come amid news reports that Hong Kong could resume quarantine-free travel with some mainland cities next month.

Speaking on RTHK's Backchat programme, Tien was asked how long it might take for Hong Kong to bring back quarantine-free international travel after the SAR reopens borders with the mainland.

In response, he said: "As long as China has its zero-case policy, Hong Kong has to follow suit. If that continues, I don’t see any chance of us relaxing our international quarantine in Hong Kong."

Tien said that whenever there was an outbreak of cases, the mainland authorities had been able to contain the spread, but questions now turn to how long the mainland can maintain its zero-Covid strategy.

"There’s been no imported cases but these things are happening so obviously there’s some kind of a leak. It’s a huge country, 1.4 billion people, can you continue this forever? And I think that is the single biggest issue, whether we will integrate with the rest of the world," he said.

Tien, who is a deputy to the National People’s Congress, said he had heard talk that the mainland are at a vaccination level where they can think about switching to a "living with Covid" strategy.

But he added that when some western countries adopted that strategy, the number of cases "shot up like a rocket", forcing authorities to clamp down and introduce stringent social distancing measures.