International financial center has seen a net outflow of almost 157,000 residents since the beginning of 2022.
Hong Kong, China — When Francis Lee returned to the UK with his wife this week after a two-year stint at a top investment bank in Hong Kong, the portfolio manager felt sad to leave the city behind. But Lee’s sadness was far outweighed by his sense of relief.
“If the COVID policy wasn’t so harsh we would still be there, it’s the only reason I started looking for another job back in London,” Lee told Al Jazeera. “With all the unknowns about mass testing and quarantine facilities in Hong Kong, it’s anxiety inducing. Without a roadmap, without any kind of timeline, you just don’t know how long it’s going to go on for.”
Lee is far from alone in voting with his feet after more than two years of strict pandemic policies in the international financial hub. While the world outside China has pivoted to living with the virus, Hong Kong has held onto some of the strictest social distancing rules and border restrictions on earth.
The Chinese territory’s “dynamic zero COVID” strategy, implemented to align with mainland China, has battered the city’s cosmopolitan image as “Asia’s World City” and set in motion an exodus of foreign businesses and talent.
When Hong Kong was hit by its fifth and deadliest wave at the start of the year, driven by the Omicron coronavirus variant, authorities implemented a tightly-enforced two-person gathering limit, dining curfews, bar and gym closures, and a return to remote learning at schools. The measures came on top of strict travel restrictions in place to various degrees since March 2020, including flight bans for “at risk” countries and up to 21 days of mandatory hotel quarantine for incoming arrivals.
“I felt like I just didn’t want to lose another six, nine, 12 months more of having to think about quarantine, washouts, policy flip-flopping and being sent to government quarantine and whatnot,” said Lee.
Residents head for the exit
Hong Kong has seen net outflow of almost 157,000 residents since the beginning of the year, according to immigration data. In a survey released by the European Chamber of Commerce in March, almost half of the European companies that responded said they were considering leaving. That same month, the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce warned the city was facing an exodus of educated workers on a scale not seen since the runup to the city’s transfer from British to Chinese sovereignty.
In the face of growing restlessness from the business community, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam last month announced a relaxation of some measures from April 1, including lifting a ban on flights from nine countries and reducing quarantine for arrivals from abroad to seven days. Even still, the city’s pandemic policies remain out of step with the global trend toward reopening and far stricter than peers such as New York, London and Singapore.
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