Opinion | How the Western Media flipped Hong Kong's COVID narrative

By Tom Fowdy

Recently the western media have amplified their attacks against Hong Kong's "zero-covid" approach to handling the pandemic. In line with changes induced by western nations, who despite having faced record outbreaks under the Omicron Variant, switching to "live with covid" strategies, the city's policy has increasingly come under attack for its strong quarantine rules and emphasis on restrictions, accusing them of isolating the city, putting off expats and undermining its international reputation. It has mirrored a similar narrative targeted at the Chinese mainland, and attempting to frame anti-covid policies as counterproductive.

In Hong Kong's instance, there are some logical considerations for this. The city's economy after all is much more reliant on international finance and the flow of people, than the mainland which is largely self-sustaining. It was also prior to the riots and the pandemic, a big tourist hotspot too. Yet on the other hand, some of these attacks are obviously politicized in setting a western agenda that the city, under "Chinese influence" as they frame it, is "not what it was" prior to the national security law. The goal is to set a broader narrative against Hong Kong, amplifying negative coverage and deliberately pushing the assumption that the city is doomed to decline as a financial centre in opposition to its policy shifts.

But it didn't use to always be that way. Whilst the context of the pandemic is different, it is readily overlooked that the same media outlets now advocating criticism of Hong Kong's policy were, prior to the national security law, its biggest cheerleaders, not least because its handling of the pandemic was used to facilitate a narrative in 2020 that mainland China was responsible for the virus, and that it was Hong Kong's (as was presented with Taiwan) opposition to China through the protest movement which was the true fulcrum was driving a successful handling of the pandemic. Now, coverage has been flipped on its head that the city's handling of the pandemic is now isolationist because it is arbitrarily influenced by Beijing, which is now against the city's best interests!

Hong Kong has always been a highly pandemic sensitive city, long before covid. A lot of it is a product of human geography combined with historical experience. Growing up as a fast-moving international trading port during times where hygiene standards were less, the city's exposure to disease outbreaks was considerably higher, coupled with the practical reality that Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The product of this unique environment was that Hong Kong become a city which excelled in its cautiousness, sensitivity and management of pandemics. It was not uncommon prior to covid to see people going around wearing masks, a legacy derived from SARS.

When covid came, this factor was quickly whipped up into an anti-China sentiment coupling fast pandemic management in the city with the protest movement. This was used to push the early narrative in the pandemic that the outbreak in Wuhan was a "transparency" problem and Hong Kong excelled because it had better values, and so on. Leading figures such as Joshua Wong in turn used this as an opportunity to peddle an anti-China agenda, demanding the borders be shut. Therefore, the city's strict and detailed approach to zero covid was in 2020, praised. But soon the context would change, the national security law in 2020 ended the Hong Kong riots and commenced a new pro-China era in the city, which seen the city's authorities come under scorn by the west. Even though its management of the pandemic had not changed, it was no longer "politically correct" to praise it.

Therefore, in line with the media's exaggerated portrayal of Hong Kong under the NSL as an oppressive dystopia, the city's zero-covid approach is now attacked as unnecessarily arbitrary and detrimental to the interests of the city, aligning it with the NSL focused narrative that the city is going to lose its "financial centre" status. The coverage given to the hamster story is a good example of this. In reality though, Hong Kong's long term, historically conditioned tough approach to pandemic management is for the common good. To allow covid to run riot in an extremely densely populated metropolis is akin to gross negligence, a disaster which will sweep through its vulnerable population and irrespective of vaccinations claim hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

Ultimately, Hong Kong remains a world class city known for its high bureaucratic standards and top notch organization. The city should not keel to the demands of countries, whom for populist reasons, have grotesquely mismanaged the pandemic and killed hundreds of thousands of their own citizens. Eventually there will be a time whereby things can go back to normal, but that isn't just yet in the wave of the Omicron explosion.

The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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