Lin Min

linmin67@hotmail.com

“HONG KONG is now seamlessly connected to the mainland of China and the whole international world and there will be no isolation, no quarantine,” a confident John Lee, chief executive of the special administrative region (SAR), said Thursday when the SAR launched an eye-catching global promotional drive to entice visitors back after three years of pandemic curbs.

A day later, mainland and Hong Kong authorities announced the full resumption of hassle-free travel between the two cities starting from today, a new milestone for the country’s return to full normality.

In particular, the full reopening to international and mainland travelers without COVID-19 restrictions is a long-awaited moment for Hong Kong, which is heavily reliant on tourism and financial services. Battered by pandemic restrictions, the SAR’s economy shrank by a worse-than-expected 3.5% last year.

Despite cautions from economists who warned against expecting a quick recovery in the next few months, the border reopening and the “Hello Hong Kong” promotion campaign — including the generous international giveaway of about 500,000 air tickets and spending vouchers — will surely pave the way for the SAR to welcome mainland and international businesspeople, investors and tourists and pull its struggling economy out of recession.

Hong Kong’s efforts to reclaim global allure nonetheless face a formidable hurdle: bias and disinformation from Western media and politicians following the national and SAR authorities’ moves to end the 2019 violence that turned Hong Kong into a battlefield.

A story in Feb. 3’s New York Times described Hong Kong as “marching toward an insular, authoritarian future,” casting doubt on international tourists’ interest in visiting the territory.

A Nikkei Asia feature story posted on the Financial Times APP on Jan. 28 claimed that “a boom in infrastructure projects linking Hong Kong to the surrounding Pearl River estuary is blurring the already hazy border” separating the SAR and the mainland. The story lopsidedly cited critics saying the projects are gradually “eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy” and “it is clear they really want to dissolve the border.”

The story even erroneously stated that the effort to blur the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong began in earnest on Jan. 6, 2018 “when bulldozers began to tear down the iron fence that separated Hong Kong from the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.”

In fact, the sprawling iron fence that was dismantled in January 2018 was the one that had separated the original Shenzhen Special Economic Zone from the rest of Shenzhen City, rather than the boundary fence between Hong Kong and the special economic zone, which remains intact today.

To battle bias and overcome negative perceptions, the SAR needs to convince the outside world that its unique advantages under “one country, two systems” remain strong. However, it will take more than an expensive promotion campaign.

A Hong Kong that is again prospering will be the best answer to critics and skeptics. With the cross-border infrastructure, industrial and technological cooperation programs expected to be back on track following the full resumption of unrestricted travel, Hong Kong and other Greater Bay Area cities, Shenzhen in particular, are ready to make up for lost time and speed up cooperation, which will inject vitality into their economies.

Through better connectivity and cooperation, Shenzhen and other Pearl River Delta cities will provide Hong Kong with opportunities in its quest to become an innovation and technology hub and tap the advantages of strong industrial chains and logistic chains of its northern neighbors. Hand in hand as a whole, Greater Bay Area cities will give better play to their respective strengths and potentials, and ultimately benefit each other.

When trying to tell the world that “Hong Kong is back,” the SAR can team up with Shenzhen and other Greater Bay Area cities to launch joint publicity campaigns to present their unique cultures, rich tourism resources and abundant business opportunities. They can also provide international visitors even better deals and make this area an even more attractive tourism, investment and business destination.

A lot of things can be done to use “soft power” to charm the world. In the longer term, Hong Kong needs to grow its “hard power” — economy, technology, financial power, human resources etc. — to prove naysayers wrong. This cannot be achieved without Hong Kong embracing its role in the Greater Bay Area story.

(The author is a deputy editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily.)