The SAR government stops at nothing to force through the unpopular Universal Community Testing Programme, even by soliciting with “travel bubbles”, which is still under immature “discussion”, to communicate to citizens a misbelief that they can soon travel to whatever places they want around the world after taking part in the testing programme. If such a gimmick is applied to a commercial contract, a warning about fraud will be given to the perpetrators, like what the Consumer Council does to those fraudulent shops.

“Travel bubbles” refer to some neighbourhood countries with similar epidemic conditions and systems relaxing entry restrictions and quarantine requirements on business trips, tourism and family visits in a conditional manner, which is a stopgap under the serious pandemic situation of Wuhan pneumonia. And the ones the SAR government is going to discuss with include, however, regions with conditions totally different from that of Hong Kong. The epidemic situations of some of the countries like Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan and South Korea are even way more severe than that of Hong Kong. Even if Hong Kong people are granted exemption by these countries from quarantine procedure or Hong Kong is not required to proffer the same exemption to travellers from those countries reciprocally, will the Hong Kong government welcome the Hongkongers exempted from quarantine in those countries back to the city? Even if the numbers of confirmed cases in those countries drop, they are still three-digit. Is the SAR government not afraid that Hong Kong people will get contracted and bring back the virus?

As to Australia and New Zealand, the former has disclaimed any contact with the Hong Kong government, but proclaimed that for the time being it is willing only to collaborate with the latter for the proximity between the two and both closed to international intercourse. Since Hong Kong declines a total border shutdown, it does not only make Hong Kong vulnerable to another outbreak of the epidemic, but also goes in the direction opposite to the lockdown policy adopted by the two countries. In addition, with the tense Sino-Australia relations escalating, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denunciates the country nearly every day. Does the SAR government deem “Hong Kong not part of China” all of a sudden?

When it comes to the rest of the South East Asian countries, including Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam the SAR government has gotten in touch with, ostensibly the numbers of confirmed cases of these countries are comparatively low, which is good for bilateral arrangement. Nonetheless, the situations of different countries vary and the conditions in some such as the Philippines and Indonesia are still serious, as evidenced by the stringent restrictions on entrance of foreign domestic helpers. In view of this, is it safe to grant travellers from neighbourhood countries exemption from quarantine requirements? What’s more, the reliability of the statistics of these countries is doubtful and their contribution to Hong Kong tourism is limited.

Actually, the most suitable one is Taiwan, not only because it is geographically and culturally close to Hong Kong, but also its number of reported cases is low and attitude towards wearing mask is similar to that of Hong Kong. However, the SAR government even refuses to issue visas to Taiwan government personnel stationed in Hong Kong amid the worsening Cross-Strait relations. As such, the only place that fulfils the requirement is out of the list for political reasons. The SAR government does not even try to get in touch with the place, which has once again proves that the SAR government, which is always gabbling about not to “politicize” everything, is always prioritizing politics. In February and March, quite a number of people, especially those from the pro-government camp, accused the Hong Kong citizens back from the U.S. and Europe, including students, business travellers and family visitors, of being “selfish” because they were deemed the origin of the second-wave outbreak. Now that epidemic situation is critical all over the world, the SAR government makes a U-turn on the decision to boost the tourism at the risk of an outbreak of the fourth wave, which is not only double-standard but also nonsensical. Suddenly, travelling overseas is not selfish and dangerous behaviour anymore. It seems that people having taken part in the Universal Community Testing Programme is even safer than those having been vaccinated. Not only are they immune, but also free to travel abroad.

The government keeps criticizing citizens for making “remarks of exaggeration inconsistent with the facts”, “vilifying” and “crying down” the Universal Community Testing Programme and Hong Kong health codes. The fact is since Chief Executive Carrie Lam pointed out a number of times the programme is on a “voluntary” basis, a bunch of pro-government figures have held a press conference urging for establishing a compulsory mechanism for the programme in which those who do not participate will not be entitled to cash handout from the government and will be penalized with a late vaccination, and  Patrick Nip, Secretary for the Civil Service Bureau, has reneged on his words, saying citizens are “responsible” for taking the test. Why does the government risk everything on a single venture, betting the mere residue of its public credibility on this testing programme?

At first, Carrie Lam admitted the efficacy of the test only lasts for 14 days. In this sense, unless it becomes a long-term project, viz all Hong Kong citizens taking a test every 14 days, how can it be conducive to “travel bubbles”? Is it worth putting all Hong Kong people at the risk of an outbreak of the fourth wave and paying a sky-high price for the programme just for the sake of facilitating overseas travel for a handful of people? Travel bubbles are fantasies, not even being able to stand a blow.

(Kay Lam, commentator)

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