Will Beijing follow Hong Kong and loosen COVID-zero?

Heartfelt reunions were seen at Hong Kong airport this morning, after the first batch of overseas arrivals that no longer had to undergo hotel quarantine landed in the city.

Residents were overjoyed when the Hong Kong government on Friday finally lifted two and a half years of tough COVID restrictions on inbound travelers, which have largely deterred the flow of people (and money) in and out of the Chinese territory.

• Under the “0+3” arrangement, arrivals will also no longer have to get a PCR test before boarding a flight to Hong Kong, but will still be tested and monitored for three days after landing. The city reported 3,846 cases today, with 188 imported — less than half of the 10,586 logged at the start of the month.
• “We must allow the maximum room to allow connectivity with the world so that we can have economic momentum, and to reduce inconvenience to arriving travelers,” John Lee Ka-chiu (李家超 Lǐ Jiāchāo) said on Friday.
• “The new arrangements mark Hong Kong’s reopening as a tourism gateway with significant international connections. This is expected to initially attract mainly business travelers, family visitors, and returning Hong Kong residents,” said Pang Yiu-kai (彭耀佳 Péng Yàojiā), chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

News that Beijing had approved the change has fueled hopes that the Chinese mainland may (to some extent) follow suit in easing up on the COVID-zero policy that has pummeled its economy and kept the country in isolation since the start of the pandemic.

• “Hong Kong [can be] a pilot project on border [reopening and] can let mainland Chinese authorities review the impact and relevant data,” said Tam Yiu-chung (譚耀宗 Tán Yàozōng), Hong Kong’s sole delegate to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, per the Financial Times.
• China stock investors bruised by the economic fallout from COVID-zero are readying for potential policy shifts at the twice-a-decade National Party Congress slated to begin on October 16.

Just an hour by ferry away from Hong Kong, Macau also announced on Saturday that China will resume an e-visa scheme for mainland travelers and permit group tours, sending stock prices of its embattled casinos through the roof.

• The gambling hub — the only place in China where gambling in casinos is legal — plans to open up to mainland Chinese tour groups in November for the first time in almost three years.

In Taiwan, which shares no laws or regulations with the People’s Republic but has adopted some similar pandemic policies, arriving travelers will no longer be monitored for COVID-19 after the end of mandatory quarantine slated for October 13, the island’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced on Friday.

• One day earlier, the government had lifted visa restrictions on some incoming visitors for citizens of countries that had them before (except for Russia), and also announced an end to the ban on visiting tour groups.

Meanwhile, Hú Xījìn 胡锡进, a prominent Chinese commentator and former editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, made an unusual social media call for candor and transparency that drew over 34,000 likes and some frank comments about the COVID-zero policy:

• “Experts must speak out, and the country should [organize] comprehensive studies and make them transparent to the public: What are the pros and cons for our common people, and what are the overall pros and cons for the country?” he wrote per the Reuters translation: “The people must trust the state, but the state must also trust the understanding of the people,” he said.
• “Oppose excessive epidemic prevention,” responded one Weibo user.
• “I don’t mind being infected, but I fear you can’t help but stop me from moving freely,” wrote another.