In Bid to Show It Is Open, Hong Kong Bends Covid Rules … for Some
By Alexandra Stevenson and Tiffany May, Nov. 4, 2022, NY Times

Few people would dispute that the city needs an economic jolt. Citywide pro-democracy protests scared off tourists in 2019. Then Covid-19 restrictions barred nonresidents from the city for two years. Lengthy mandatory hotel quarantines triggered an
exodus of professional workers, many of whom relocated to rival cities, such as Singapore.

With the economy heading for a recession, thousands of small businesses have shuttered, pushing many people out of a job.

Officials took a big step toward reopening in September when they jettisoned hotel quarantine requirements. But many say the new approach has made little difference because some restrictions remain in place. Travelers are barred from restaurants, bars
and many other businesses for three days after arrival and must undergo health monitoring for a week.

“There are no tourists coming in,” said Eric Lee, the owner of a souvenir shop selling retro toy cars and snacks. Revenues at his nearly decade-old business, Hong Kong Tram Store, have fallen by as much as 70 percent in the past two years. “Will
tourists have the patience to scan QR codes here and there?” he asked, referring to a cumbersome smartphone app required for visitors.

“You don’t have to do these things in other places,” he said. “And how about masks?”

Some of those small hassles were scrapped for financial executives to convince them to visit the city this week. Even the city’s financial secretary, Paul Chan, appeared to be given a pass when he returned to the city after testing positive for Covid
while overseas. He also tested positive upon arrival, but was allowed to skip quarantine to attend events, where he abandoned his mask for important speeches.

Mr. Chan told reporters that health officials treated his case like any other. “There’s no particular privilege at all,” he said.

Despite the special dispensation given to V.I.P.s, many declined to visit Hong Kong. Officials said 12,000 people signed up for Fintech, a little more than half the 20,000 visitors that organizers expected.

Some of the biggest names on the guest list for the finance summit — including Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Blackstone’s Jonathan Gray and Capital Group’s Timothy Armour — canceled at the last minute, with four of them citing Covid-19 or virus-like
symptoms.

The bankers who did visit Hong Kong this week mostly limited their stay to just a few days, attending a private dinner at M+, a new contemporary art museum, and meeting with employees for the first time in more than two years.

Though U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups had discouraged bankers from attending, officials in Beijing and Hong Kong showered the executives with praise.

“Your presence today puts a heady exclamation point to this welcome gathering,” Mr. Lee, Hong Kong’s leader, told bankers on Wednesday. China’s state controlled media trumpeted the summit as a sign of Hong Kong’s return as a global city.

One Chinese regulator, Fang Xinghai, urged visiting bankers not to read international media’s coverage of his country. During a panel discussion with the heads of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the UBS chairman Colm Kelleher assured the audience
that “we’re all very pro-China.”

Still, it was impossible to shield the executives from the ways in which Hong Kong is trying to adhere to some of Beijing’s Covid policies. Outside the ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel where the finance summit was held, one sign prominently pointed
to the “PCR test center,” a key requirement that even V.I.P.s were unable to get out of.

In their bid to get more visitors to come back, city officials also adjusted Covid rules for the Rugby Sevens tournament, Hong Kong’s top sports event.

Initially, officials said no food could be consumed in the stands, but then pivoted to say a small amount would be allowed, though masks were still required. Raphaël Seghin, who traveled to Hong Kong on Tuesday and hoped to attend the tournament, said
he was confused about what rules still applied.

Mr. Seghin had already received two doses of a Covid vaccine when he booked his flight from Marseille, France, where he runs a soap factory. When he heard later that most locals needed three shots to enter restaurants and other venues, he rushed to get a
booster before flying out, only to find out that it wouldn’t be valid until 14 days later. “I was stressed the whole ride,” he said, though he found testing procedures after arrival to be efficient.

Mr. Seghin, 37, grew up in Hong Kong and was returning to the city to renew his permanent residency.

“I live in a world now where Covid is not part of the preoccupations of most people on a daily basis,” Mr. Seghin said. “When you come here, it’s at the center of everything you do.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/business/hong-kong-covid-rules.html

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