Hong Kong has been "cleared" local cases for more than a month, but the customs clearance of Hong Kong, Macao and dry Hong Kong still seems to be indefinite.
Hong Kong citizens generally expect that when Hong Kong is "cleared" for a certain number of days, it will be able to clear customs with Macau, which has long been unimpeded with the mainland, and then use this as a pilot to realize the two-way isolation-free entry arrangement with the mainland; however, the legitimate Chief Executive Lin Zheng Yue'e is still waiting for the positive guidance from the central government. The Macau authorities have suddenly "re-exported" recently, indicating that the National Health Commission temporarily does not allow local customs clearance measures to be relaxed, which obviously makes Hong Kong, Macao and even dry ports variable.
The Hong Kong government really has to conduct a comprehensive review. What is the fundamental problem that hinders the clearance of land and Hong Kong? Has it always seen the distinction between the "two systems" and failed to take advantage of the convenience of "one country"?
It is understood that the Shenzhen government initially tends to use July 11 as an important node to negotiate customs clearance as soon as possible.
The epidemic is a public health crisis, but also a test of the government's ability to govern.
However, Xiang Wei believes that Hong Kong, which is better than Macau, has scored much worse than Macau in the two examinations of the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the new crown virus epidemic in 2019.
An obvious example is that Macau has already resumed customs clearance between Guangdong and Macau and allowed local residents and mainland tourists to hold a 7-day valid nucleic acid test negative certificate to be exempted from quarantine when entering and exiting the two places, both in the "Special Administrative Region" at the border. Customs clearance arrangements with Macau and the Mainland have been "only heard by the stairs" since the "customs closure" last year.
Some people would say that even though they are all "special administrative regions," Hong Kong is far more complex, developed, and larger than Macau in terms of urban size, foreign trade, and tourist flows, so the epidemic is naturally difficult to control.
These are of course objective factors that cannot be ignored, but whether or not "customs clearance" depends on the degree of epidemic prevention in the city, the other key is whether the local government has effective docking and communication with the relevant mainland authorities. From travel to life, the exchanges between the two places are quite frequent, and the port control, crowd management, and quarantine measures involved in "customs clearance" must be understood and agreed by both sides in order to produce bilateral guarantees-in terms of "customs clearance" It’s not difficult to see that Macau knows how to make good use of the benefits of "one country" to break the "two systems" divide, and it has succeeded in close contact and cooperation with the mainland authorities, so personnel exchanges have been restored as soon as possible.
Chief Executive of Macau He Yicheng (Photo by Liang Pengwei / Profile Picture)
Macau has close communication with Zhuhai
Back in time to January 22 last year, Hong Kong and Macau respectively confirmed the first cases of new coronary pneumonia.
In fact, long before the case appeared, Macau Chief Executive He Yicheng had invited Zhong Nanshan, a senior expert team leader of the National Health Commission and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, to visit Macau on the same day to give advice on prevention and control; Zhong Nanshan suggested at the time that due to the high concentration of Macau’s population, There are many gaming corporate hotels, and many tourists may visit Australia during the Chinese New Year. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with Guangdong Province to strictly prevent the import of super spreaders and jointly prevent and control the spread of the epidemic.
After the incident, He Yicheng continued to keep in touch with Zhong Nanshan to adjust measures in response to the epidemic. The next day, He Yicheng also held a joint defense meeting with Zhuhai. The two sides decided to strengthen epidemic prevention measures and jointly prohibit persons with fever from entering and leaving the country.
On the other hand, when the epidemic began to appear in Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam was in Switzerland to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. Even the epidemic prevention meeting coordinating various government departments could not be held, let alone inviting a national expert group to give guidance, like in Macau. It even cooperates closely with the Guangdong Provincial Government.
As a result, Hong Kong, which has 13 entry and exit ports, 8 of which only connect to the mainland, and 4 connects to the mainland and Macau, has not launched a targeted port and traffic management mechanism in a timely manner like Macau.
After Carrie Lam returned to Hong Kong on January 25, she only announced the suspension of flights and high-speed trains to and from Wuhan, and expanded the original "health declaration for mainland immigrants" mechanism from the international airport to other ports, and nothing more.
But at that time (January 26), Macau has once again "upgraded" the epidemic prevention, requiring that from the next day, non-Macao residents who have visited the province from Hubei Province and 14 days before entering Macau must present a legal medical institution. The provided "No Coronavirus Infection" medical certificate, otherwise they will be refused entry; as for the 1,113 Hubei Province visitors who entered the country from December 1, 2019 to the same day and are still in Macau, they must be centralized and unified by the Macau authorities Management, quarantine at the quarantine center until the end of the validity period of the endorsement or the expiration of the planned trip and leave Macau.
On February 3, 2020, the Hong Kong government closed the Lo Wu Port, the Lok Ma Chau Branch, the Huanggang Port and the Hong Kong-Macao Ferry Terminal, while the Chek Lap Kok Airport, the Shenzhen Bay Port and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Port remained in operation.
(Photo by Zeng Ziyang)
Hong Kong lacks cross-border management communication
By February 4, in order to further reduce the risk of tourists coming to Macau and prevent the risk of community transmission, Macau has decided to close all casinos and entertainment venues for at least 15 days.
In Hong Kong at that time, due to the political turmoil brought about by the "anti-amendment turmoil", the "anti-China" sentiment and "divisional" thinking remained under the political hype of the emerging trade union "HA Staff Front". There is a market, which has led to a lot of calls for "total closure of the borders of the Mainland". However, because the authorities still lack the management and deployment of the flow of people at the borders, they have been unable to make Hong Kong people clearly understand the issue of "how to close the borders"-"total closure of the borders of the Mainland" It will lead to the serious consequences of a complete shutdown of Hong Kong, so the scientific approach of "partial closure" can only be adopted. It was not until the so-called "medical strike" period (February 5) that the authorities were quite passive in requiring compulsory quarantine for all inbound people from the Mainland 14 Day, that is, to reduce the flow of people by "increasing the cost of entry and exit".
As of March 17, when a large-scale outbreak of the new crown epidemic began in Europe, the United States and other places, Macau began to "close customs to the outside world", banning residents from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places and holders of "foreign employee identification cards" All non-local residents of China enter the country, and visitors, foreign domestic helpers and Macao residents who can enter must undergo 14-day medical observation at designated locations.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, Macau had only 13 confirmed cases.
However, Hong Kong, with hindsight, seems to be still immersed in the "victory" of the first wave of a slight slowdown in the epidemic, completely ignoring overseas crises; until the surge in imported cases overseas, the number of confirmed cases increased from 164 in just 6 days It was only 351 people on March 23 that the authorities announced that non-Hong Kong residents from overseas areas were prohibited from entering Hong Kong.
Regarding the port management performance of Hong Kong and Macau, it can be said that the Hong Kong government did not communicate in time if it needed to communicate with the mainland; it did not take immediate preventive measures if it needed to be strictly guarded outside the country, which led to the next four waves of epidemics. Imported overseas and there is a big outbreak-no wonder there is always a saying that the reason why the mainland is unwilling to exempt Hong Kong people from compulsory quarantine is that they cannot trust this external window.
SARS has exposed the problem but has not improved
In fact, during the SARS outbreak in 2003, Hong Kong was unable to effectively use the benefits of "one country" to break the "two systems" division; until after SARS, whether it was the investigation report of the Legislative Council or the experts established by the SAR government None of the committee reports talked about the management mechanism for the flow of people at the port in response to major incidents.
For example, the Legislative Council "Investigating the Government and Hospital Authority's Handling of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome" The frequent cross-border flow of people" also mentioned that "infectious diseases can be spread through international travel and cross-border travel between China and Hong Kong", but no specific suggestions were made.
As for the "Learning from Experience and Preventive Measures" written by the "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Expert Committee" appointed by the government, it is only from the perspective of medical system connectivity, advocating the establishment of a regular data reporting system, close collaboration and promotion of disease monitoring. Medical professionals from the two places communicated, established contacts with institutions and people with disease control experience and capabilities to formulate contingency plans, etc., without touching on port management and crowd control.
It is worth mentioning that even if the health departments and epidemic prevention experts of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao do hold the "Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Joint Conference on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases" every year afterwards to discuss the areas of surveillance, prevention and notification mechanisms for infectious diseases, they are still only From the perspective of improving the medical response mechanism, it does not involve the control of cross-border flow of people.
Hong Kong and Shenzhen seem to be disconnected
On the other hand, during the SARS period in Macao, both the port management and officials or the professional medical personnel for epidemic prevention have learned to take advantage of the close ties between regions under the "one country" to eliminate the red tape under the "two systems". Let the health officials and doctors of the two places directly exchange the latest epidemic information, and plan for countermeasures as soon as possible.
For example, the late Lao Yongle, a former medical member of the Legislative Council, wrote "The Story of Hong Kong and Macao Fighting the Epidemic in Two Cities" after SARS. He mentioned that the Guangdong Provincial Department of Health issued an expert report on January 23 and it was quickly spread to Macau. It has received great attention from the authorities. Compared with Hong Kong's "foresight", which only broke out on March 12, the first case was imported from Zhuhai on May 10.
Lo Yongle criticized that Hong Kong "stubbornly adhered to the separation of the two systems and reported everything to the central government. As a result, it created many unnecessary regional barriers", making the epidemic out of control.
Macau is equally responsive to the COVID-19 pandemic today. It established a mobile "anti-epidemic joint prevention and control mechanism" with neighboring Zhuhai as soon as possible, and notified each other of confirmed cases at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. every day to adjust the port. The docking arrangements and epidemic prevention and control measures can be described as a "horizontal to end, vertical to end" communication network that has been jointly organized. It has horizontally connected port flow control and medical referrals, and vertically established a close leadership level between the two places. connection.
Hong Kong, and Shenzhen, which is separated by a river, seems to be two disconnected worlds. It was not until early May last year when the second wave of the epidemic slowed down slightly and it was necessary to deal with the resumption of cross-border school children. Under the invitation, they agreed to study the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong joint prevention and control measures", and later extended to the certification of nucleic acid testing, the docking of cross-border drivers and other inbound and outbound flows-it seems too passive, and the picture is a prison, everything can only wait for the central government to send it out. "It seems to regard myself as an "island."
The same is true for Macau, which is separated by the sea. For example, when the epidemic first broke out, it unilaterally announced the closure of the Hong Kong and Macau terminal, which caused dissatisfaction in Macau. Even He Yicheng also said that he was a "television prophet"-it is obvious beforehand. No negotiation took place.
The Civil Service Bureau announced that the Chief Executive-in-Council decided to freeze the salaries of high-level, middle- and low-level salary and directorate civil servants in 2021-22, with the effective date retroactive to April 1, 2021.
(Information Picture/Photo by Zhang Haowei)
What is the hope of customs clearance for the isolated city strategy?
In the future anti-epidemic war, the Hong Kong government has also adhered to the lone city strategy of "surrounding oneself without communication" to the end, and hardly regarded itself as a "special administrative region" of China.
The most classic "joke" is that on the one hand, the SAR government expressed the hope that customs could be cleared as soon as possible, but on the other hand, it did not actively seek to connect with the mainland authorities in terms of epidemic control, case tracking, risk standards, health certification, etc., and the result was a mess. In mid-May, "Easy to Hong Kong" suddenly stopped the oolong incident that resumed after 6 hours.
A local case of unknown origin was confirmed in Liwan District of Guangzhou on May 21. The National Health Commission adjusted the local Jinlonghui Huixin Pavilion, Longjin Street, where the epidemic broke out, to a “national risk area”. The next day, Hong Kong When the Department of Health held a regular press conference, it stated that it would include the entire Guangdong Province in the "List of Risky Areas Not Applicable to the Easy Home Return Program" and immediately suspend the "Easy Return to Hong Kong" in Guangdong Province; the decision immediately caused a social uproar, but 6 hours Later, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau issued a statement on behalf of the Hong Kong Government, stating that Guangdong Province is not listed as a "national epidemic risk area", so the province's "Easy Return to Hong Kong" policy remains unchanged.
This small incident completely exposed the different standards of risk mechanisms between the Hong Kong government and the Mainland.
The original practice of the SAR government was based on the "province" as the basis for risk assessment. Once a confirmed case occurs in the province, the entire province will be included in the "not applicable list" in order to facilitate the identification of the port personnel; however, due to the epidemic control in the Mainland And case tracking is stricter than that of Hong Kong, so the National Health Commission's risk classification standard is much more refined than that of Hong Kong, which can be subdivided into the number of buildings and phases in the community.
After the incident, the Hong Kong government had to adjust the "fuse mechanism" of "Easy Return to Hong Kong", no longer using "province" as the smallest unit, but subdivided into "community".
When it comes to case tracking, compared with other regions in the country, including Macau, Hong Kong is also considered a "outstanding flock", because so far there is still no implementation of the "Hong Kong Health Code" that requires universal application and can communicate with provinces and cities in the Mainland. Instead, it is an encouragement The citizen voluntarily scans the QR code to record the whereabouts of the "Travel with peace of mind" mobile phone application, when necessary, informs citizens who have been in and out of high-risk places through the in-app communication system to perform nucleic acid tests on their own, but if the citizen ignores this, they can continue to scan the code Enter other places.
It is not difficult to foresee that under the circumstances that Hong Kong's vaccination rate is not high, if the Hong Kong government still only sees the barrier of "two systems" and does not actively seek the connection of "one country", "customs clearance" may be out of reach.