Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged Hong Kong to do “everything necessary” to contain a severe corona outbreak in the semi-autonomous city-state.
Xi says in Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing press that aid would be coming from the Chinese capital. Deputy Prime Minister Han Zheng, who heads the Communist Party’s internal working group for Hong Kong, will coordinate the aid.
Xi wrote in Wen Wei Po newspaper that the Hong Kong government should use all possible resources and available workforce “to ensure the safety and health of the people of Hong Kong and the general stability of society”. The newspaper is regarded as a mouthpiece for Beijing.
According to media reports, Hong Kong has requested additional testing capacity, additional medical equipment and assistance in setting up temporary isolation and treatment centres. It is also alleged that China was asked to supply food and necessary products to the city.
Hong Kong has successfully fought the virus with preventive measures in the past two years. But recently, the number of new infections has peaked day after day at record highs. Despite the strike rules, the densely populated city of some 7 million souls had more than 1,6000 deaths on Tuesday.
Hong Kong has been part of China since 1997. Before that, the city was a British crown colony. London and Beijing agreed that Hong Kong would be given special status for another half-century. It has its own parliament and a Western-style legal system. But the opposition denounces that the communist superpower is increasingly taking control of the semi-autonomous city-state.
In recent years there has been a lot of protest against the government. Beijing previously passed a controversial national security law after mass protests in Hong Kong. The legislation gives authorities more options to deal with activists.
