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Opinion
The fact overlooked in Hong Kong’s coronavirus panic: most cross-border travellers are Hongkongers
- Hundreds of thousands, including truck drivers and Hong Kong travellers, cross the border every day. And even government critics accept that we can’t just switch off the flow of goods from the mainland. Is it helpful to politicise this issue?
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Bernard Chan, born in 1965, is a Hong Kong businessman.
Nearly 330 million passengers came in and out of Hong Kong in 2018 (the latest year for which we have figures). Around 250 million of these trips were overland to and from mainland China, and the rest were by air or sea to and from all over the world.
Even during slow periods, that’s hundreds of thousands of arrivals and departures every day. The majority of these trips are made by Hong Kong residents.
They include large numbers who live across the border and commute here every day. There are local truck drivers, local people who have retired to Guangdong and are visiting family here, and local travellers visiting the mainland for business or pleasure.
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This is the day-to-day reality of integration between Hong Kong and the mainland.
A deep misunderstanding of this cross-border travel has become clear in recent weeks, as fears spread about the coronavirus epidemic and various groups, including those from the medical profession, demand that the Hong Kong government essentially seal off the city from the mainland.
Some of these calls are probably politically motivated – a way for opponents of the government to put officials in a difficult position. There is also some anti-mainland sentiment, although more than 85 per cent of those crossing the border are Hongkongers who pose exactly the same health risk as mainlanders. But I am sure many people supporting this drastic idea were sincere.
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