While the mainland-Hong Kong Special Administrative Region relationship has become much closer with the arrival of a 300-strong team of mainland medical workers to help the city fight the COVID-19 pandemic, local residents have to be on the alert for a small tide of anti-Beijing sentiment surfacing to disrupt our collective anti-pandemic efforts.
The highly qualified and well-trained medics arrived from Guangdong province on Wednesday, and they, together with the first batch of 75 that came earlier, will be working alongside local nursing staff to take care of patients with mild symptoms.
Their arrival is timely help in our hour of need, as the city has been suffering an acute shortage of medical staff since the start of the fifth wave of the coronavirus outbreak in January, causing many elderly deaths because of lack of care.
I believe the majority of Hong Kong residents do feel grateful about the great help because Guangdong province, espeically Shenzhen, is also suffering a sudden surge of confirmed cases. These visiting medics who came from the highest grade of hospitals in Guangdong had to leave behind their families and their patients for Hong Kong.
The primary responsibility to beat the current outbreak, of course, lies in the SAR government, but it needs strong support from the whole community … we can definitely win the battle against the omicron virus
However, a small group of ungrateful Hong Kong residents harboring an anti-Beijing sentiment always look for opportunities to disturb the mainland-Hong Kong SAR relationship. At a daily briefing held by the SAR government on Wednesday, a local woman television reporter asked a question not about how the medics of the two places would work together, but about a specific complaint mechanism against mainland medics, triggering a wave of online rebukes, blasting her ungratefulness. There were also comments challenging the English-language standards and medical knowledge of the mainland medical team.
It is unbelievable that after over two years of the coronavirus, this group of ungrateful people still does not know the Chinese mainland is most successful in the world to combat the COVID-19 pandemic with the ability to provide medical aid to other countries. Or are they just turning a blind eye to the reality because of their anti-Beijing political inclination?
The white paper “Fighting COVID-19: China in Action”, published by China’s State Council Information Office in June 2020, says: “China has been active in providing medical aid to other countries. As of May 31, China had sent 29 medical expert teams to 27 countries, and offered assistance to 150 countries and four international organizations. It has instructed its medical teams stationed in 56 countries to support the local fight, and provide counseling and health information to local people and overseas Chinese. They have so far organized over 400 online and offline training sessions in this regard.”
It is a pity for this group of anti-Beijing Hong Kong residents to keep burying their heads in the sand and refuse to study earnestly more about the rapid development of the Chinese mainland over the years.
On the other hand, despite being one of the most well-developed communities in the world with a 95.7 percent adult literacy rate and Asia’s trading and communications hub, Hong Kong residents, sorry to say, are not rational on average, and are always susceptible to rumors and fake news. That characteristic has been taken advantage of by the anti-Beijing elements who are very good at exploiting local people’s herd behavior to spread rumors at the expense of Hong Kong’s safety and prosperity.
(Luo Jie/China Daily)
A new round of rumors emerged recently, giving supposed details and the date of an upcoming compulsory universal testing program for COVID-19 with the malicious purpose of creating another wave of panic buying. Fortunately, the SAR government reacted quickly this time to condemn the rumors, noting that all the details of the program are still being carefully planned and will be openly announced once it is ready.
A similar rumor spread early this month caused a wave of completely unjustifiable panic-purchase sprees despite repeated appeals by the authorities to convince the public not to stockpile food and daily necessities because the cross-boundary supply mechanism had been enhanced to ensure sufficient supplies of food and goods to Hong Kong daily.
In addition, many fake photos such as fallen ceilings in isolation facilities and no-privacy toilet facilities in the Tsing Yi makeshift hospital have been circulating on social media, aiming to defame the joint anti-pandemic efforts of the mainland and SAR governments, and many people do believe them. Many local residents who have been misled by those anti-Beijing media outlets still believe that the DNA samples collected in the nasal and throat swab tests will be sent to the mainland for storage and use in the future, as will the personal information stored in the LeaveHomeSafe tracing app.
Some lawless elements even encourage infected people to break the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation by dining out to spread the virus. Two men allegedly promoting such behavior online have been arrested and charged by the police.
While I trust Hong Kong is still a community of love, care, diligence and solidarity although it has lost much of these values and virtues since the social unrest in 2019, we should not allow ourselves to develop a take-it-for-granted and rely-on-you sluggishness in treating the comprehensive aid given by the central government in fighting the pandemic. The re-closure of public beaches due to people ignoring the social-distancing measures has also reflected people’s relaxation on fighting the pandemic.
The primary responsibility to beat the current outbreak, of course, lies in the SAR government, but it needs strong support from the whole community. If all parties in the city work together, be on the alert for rumors and other destructive acts as well as make full use of the resources provided by the mainland, we can definitely win the battle against the omicron virus and take Hong Kong to a new height of development in the post-pandemic era.
The author is a member of the Hong Kong Association of Media Veterans and a freelance writer.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.