by Li Ping

Renowned medical journal The Lancet once published an article which stated that the first confirmed case of the Wuhan Virus appeared on Dec. 1, 2019. The virus has since rampaged globally. Reaching its first year anniversary, there have been 23 million infected, 1.46 million deaths, and Hong Kong is currently facing the fourth wave of the epidemic. Carrie Lam’s administration announced yesterday that it will tighten anti-epidemic measures once again. What is concerning is that there is an increasing trend of citizens concealing their visits to venues of group infections. There are privacy concerns, anti-epidemic fatigue, and distrust and non-cooperation with the government. The government was the first to conceal the epidemic, and had repeatedly allowed foreign infected persons into Hong Kong. It used the epidemic as an excuse to suppress protesters, attempted to control the privacy of the public, and adopted selective law enforcement. All of which undermined the legal and moral constraints of oaths, which caused more damage and destruction to Hong Kong than any spread of virus.

The source of the Wuhan Virus and the emergence of “patient zero” are still undetermined. However, it is undeniable that the Chinese government had concealed the epidemic after the infection group appeared in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei. “Whistleblower” Dr. Li Wenliang was summoned by the police, admonished, and lambasted by the official state mouthpieces as a “rumor spreader”. What is also undeniable is that the World Health Organization (WHO) was an accomplice in China’s concealing of the epidemic. It was not until Jan. 30 when it finally announced that the epidemic constituted an international public health emergency. And it was as late as Mar. 11, the day after Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping ascended in Wuhan to announce that China had achieved a phased victory in the fight against the virus, that the WHO eventually declared that the epidemic had constituted a “global pandemic”.

When the CCP was advertising how Xi Jinping personally deployed and directed the war against the epidemic, which exemplified his care for the people, his wisdom of governing the country, and the sage of the world, and when Carrie Lam’s government frivolously thanked the party and the country for caring for Hong Kong and helping Hong Kong fight the virus, Hongkongers were panic-buying masks, toilet paper, and rice, and they survived the first wave all alone by self-help. Yet, Carrie Lam’s government has not learned from the lessons of refusing to close the borders, and with that came the second wave of the epidemic brought by tourists and students from Europe and the United States. Again, the people overcame this one all alone by self-help.

And yet again, Carrie Lam’s government ignored experts’ warnings about the vulnerabilities triggered by the loopholes in border control, which was when the quarantine-exempted seafarers brought about the third wave of the epidemic, and next came the fourth wave of the epidemic with the Nepalese strains. How are these different from concealing the epidemic? The epidemic has repeatedly hit Hong Kong, and anti-epidemic fatigue is understandable. Although there is no longer shortage of daily epidemic prevention materials such as masks and hand sanitizers, the patience and confidence of the citizens in cooperating with the government to fight the epidemic are slipping away quickly.

In this year, Carrie Lam’s government has, on the one hand, profusely thanked China for sending medical aid to Hong Kong, building Fangcang hospitals, and subsidizing the Universal Community Testing Program, it has, on the other hand, left no stones unturned in its efforts to settle the scores with the medical professionals who have successfully demanded the closure of the border and effectively fought the epidemic. In this year, Carrie Lam’s government has, on the one hand, issued restrictions on gatherings, mask ban orders, inspection orders, and restrictions on citizens’ public activities, and on the other, it has continued to promote the restoration of customs clearance between China and Hong Kong, imitated China’s surveillance tracking system in the name of Health Code, and built momentum for Leave Home Safe QR code system.

If it is said that Carrie Lam’s two-face policy is a huge blow to the citizens’ confidence in fighting the epidemic, then by allowing Covid to mutate into a political virus is a huge blow to the citizens’ willingness to cooperate and fight against the epidemic. Over this past year, the gathering ban has become a convenient tool for the authorities to ban protests and gatherings, and suppress street resistance. It has covered up the white terror of suppression enabled by the national security law. In the past year, the CCP and Hong Kong Commies have used the spread of Covid as a reason to kill the LegCo election, to eradicate the pro-democracy LegCo members, and complete the transformation of LegCo into a rubber-stamping machine in order to fully demolish the separation of the three powers in Hong Kong.

What’s more despicable is how the CCP and Hong Kong Commies disqualified LegCo members with the excuse of violation of the oath, required civil servants to now swear allegiance, and plotted to intimidate teachers and District Councilor to swear allegiance as well. In name, these are all to strengthen the legal constraints of the oath, but in truth, it is undermining the solemnity of the oath, and destroying its moral restraints. The more the citizens distrust the government, the more they are unwilling to cooperate. When disclosing their close contact with the confirmed cases, and when undergoing mandatory testing, some people have concealed the truth out of privacy concerns, while others simply stopped listening to the government. You do you, I do me.

The government demanded those in close contact with the infected dancing group and the infected restaurant group to be tested within a limited time period. However, in the face of the government’s selective law enforcement and mandatory oath-taking system, under such double, corrupted standards, how are the citizens to have the consciousness, constraints, and moral ethics of cooperating to fight against the epidemic? The CCP and Hong Kong Commies have destroyed the rule of law in Hong Kong, and are now also smashing the foundation of Hong Kong’s civil society.

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