I don't see a hidden agenda by China. Why destroy what you own? Makes no sense. Plus the public order has long been restored, there is no more uprising, no more resistance, all gone. Same goes for circulating conspiracy theories regarding a secret plan to take over Cathay. As if that would be worth the effort, plus they own a third already anyway.
Cathay and Hong Kong are simply a collateral of the current Zero- Covid policy. Just a side note of history, nobody really cares about us in Beijing. We are completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
While the current policy is obviously extremely harmful for some industries, obviously the Beijing government has decided it is worth the price. Think of China as 1.4 Billion more or less unvaccinated people ( by Western standards). As long as they haven't found a solution for that, borders will remain closed. My guess is a Chinese development of an improved vaccine needs to materialise first, then consider the distribution problem given the massive population size.Or maybe they lose the battle earlier, infections will rise exponentially and they are forced to give in eventually. Given the possibility the latter could backfire and lead to loss of control or at least face, this is not probable in my opinion. Rather more draconic lockdowns, which could happen in Hong Kong as well.
There might be a slim chance the HK gov gets the approval by China to change course and to open up. Building a gateway to the world might be of some benefit for China, but again this is not very likely. Most predict no change in 2022 or even beyond..
Last edited by Sam Ting Wong; 1st Feb 2022 at 17:33.