(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong is preparing to cocoon some 1,000 people involved in the city’s July 1 handover anniversary, fueling speculation that Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the celebrations.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Security staff, including police officers protecting a “very, very important person,” will enter the closed-loop system in readiness for hosting an unspecified Chinese state leader, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday evening, citing people it did not identify.
Logistics were still being finalized but one option under consideration was sending all those involved into hotel quarantine for seven days before the event, with regular Covid testing, the newspaper said. The list of individuals required to isolate was likely to grow in the coming weeks, potentially also covering ceremony attendees.
The Post reported earlier this week that Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other top Hong Kong officials — including her incoming replacement John Lee — were preparing to enter the closed loop. That system would prevent officials from meeting “outsiders” and require them to live apart from their families, according to the newspaper, which said officials had been informed a month ago.
China has used closed-loop systems to ensure key events go ahead with minimum infection risk as the country sticks to its Covid Zero policy. Similar protocols were used this year for the Beijing Winter Olympics and the National People’s Congress.
Xi’s attendance on July 1 would mark his first trip outside mainland China since January 2020, when he visited neighboring Myanmar. Since then, the mainland has stuck to a strict zero-tolerance policy that’s sometimes plunged cities into lockdown over a handful of cases and all but closed the nation’s borders.
Hong Kong has drifted from that strategy, resisting tightening pandemic curbs in recent weeks despite recording hundreds of cases a day. “I believe that most Hong Kong people would agree they need to see a path to recovery,” Lam said Tuesday at a press briefing, adding that “acceptability by the public” was now an important factor in pandemic decision making.
That disparity between Hong Kong and the mainland’s virus policies has cast doubt over whether Xi will visit on July 1, the date marking 25 years since Britain returned the city to Chinese rule and Lee’s first day in office.
The two hotels booked for Xi’s inaugural visit as president five years ago — the Grand Hyatt and the Renaissance — haven’t accepted public bookings between June 28 and July 1, local media including Ming Pao have reported. All law enforcement agencies will be mobilized for the event, officials have said.
Lam said Tuesday that the city was “looking forward” to a visit from the country’s leader, but cautioned that for such a trip to go ahead conditions would need to be favorable. “I cannot tell you more,” she added.
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
