Coronavirus: top Beijing official’s call to Hong Kong leaders to shoulder their responsibility in Covid fight a warning shot, political analysts say

A top Beijing official was not mincing his words and was firing a warning shot at the Hong Kong government when he told city leaders to shoulder their responsibility and uphold their oath of office to get the city’s raging coronavirus outbreak under control, political analysts have said.

The message from Xia Baolong, director of the cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, also showed Beijing’s growing anxiety that the public health crisis could get out of hand and eventually deal a blow to the social and political stability of the city, they said.

“The central government is saying that this is huge trouble and is issuing a warning letter,” Professor Song Sio-chong, from Shenzhen University’s Research Centre of Hong Kong and Macau Basic Law, told the Post on Friday.

Xia made the remarks in Beijing on Thursday when he presided over the seventh meeting of a top-level group coordinating mainland China’s help to Hong Kong in its fight against a surging fifth wave of infections, the city’s worst so far.

According to a report by state-run mainland media outlet Hong Kong China News Agency, Xia also called for exposing the “anti-China destabilising forces” who created panic to disrupt anti-pandemic efforts.

“Top Hong Kong officials must have the courage to shoulder arduous responsibility, and do a good job in organisation and leadership, and fulfil their inaugural oath with concrete actions in the battle against the pandemic,” Xia said.