Hong Kong’s Exodus Is Real and Painful
The migration is accelerating and will likely be permanent. Officials and businesses are wrong to downplay the impact on a hub fast losing financial and global appeal.
What happens when Covid travel restrictions come down?
Photograph: Bloomberg
Casual conversations in Hong Kong these days turn quickly to departures: Where to go, how to find work or school places. Subway station advertisements tout developments in London commuter towns. Thousands of the territory’s 7.5 million people, faced with the reality of Beijing’s rapidly tightening grip, have already left for new lives elsewhere. Many thousands more will likely follow as pandemic restrictions lift — not just a handful of young activists, but average families, galvanized by child arrests and the advent of a pro-China school curriculum.
Their flight and absence will leave the city changed.