Hong Kong delegate’s summons to Beijing meeting sparks hopes border with mainland China could reopen soon
- Tam Yiu-chung, a member of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, has been told to attend a meeting next month
- Tam expresses confidence that move ‘is a very good message’ about resumption of travel
Hong Kong’s sole delegate to the top national legislative body has expressed confidence that the city’s border with mainland China could reopen soon, after being told to travel to Beijing next month.
The summons to the next meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee comes after Tam Yiu-chung was unexpectedly barred from attending its October gathering on the grounds of a single coronavirus infection in Hong Kong.
Tam, a standing committee member, was speaking on Sunday as a high-level delegation of mainland officials and experts visited Hong Kong International Airport with senior members of the city government.
The group from the National Health Commission and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, alongside health experts from Guangdong province, arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday for a four-day visit to inspect the city’s Covid-19 prevention measures, as both sides prepared for the first phase of the border reopening early next month.
The Post earlier reported that residents would be allowed to enter the mainland without undergoing quarantine starting from early December, about two weeks sooner than originally planned. The number of people allowed to cross each day will initially be limited to a few hundred, but that is expected to grow to several thousand.