Top Hong Kong delegate downplays talk of government divide over Covid-19 tracking system

Tam Yiu-chung and technology minister Alfred Sit have offered differing views over what mainland China is willing to accept in a health code-sharing system

But Tam tells the Post he was only trying to remind the administration of what was realistic when he said Beijing would not accept voluntary contract tracing

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Tam Yiu-chung has been barred from attending a meeting of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee this week due to a recent Hong Kong Covid-19 case. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 9:00am, 19 Oct 2021

A pro-Beijing heavyweight’s criticism of Hong Kong’s proposal for sharing a Covid-19 health code system with mainland China has sparked questions about whether a division exists between the pro-establishment bloc and the administration.

But Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong’s sole delegate to the nation’s top legislative body, on Monday said he was only trying to “remind” the city’s senior officials about what type of suggestions would be acceptable to mainland authorities after a minister revealed one idea involved voluntarily supplying certain information.

The governments on both sides of the border have been engaged in sporadic talks aimed at reopening checkpoints to regular travel, but the central government has long insisted the city must be free of any infections and provide a health code-sharing system.

The inability to track Hongkongers’ movements on the other side remains a major obstacle, as the city’s health code is not linked to the mainland’s because of privacy concerns.

Tam revealed on Saturday he was banned from attending a National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee’s meeting, which kicks off in Beijing on Tuesday, after mainland authorities cited the risk of infection posed by a single, untraceable coronavirus case recently found in Hong Kong.

He said the cancellation of his trip highlighted how hard it would be for Hong Kong to persuade mainland authorities to allow the city’s residents to cross the border without undergoing weeks of quarantine.

Then, after Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang on Sunday dismissed suggestions a voluntary system would be unacceptable to mainland authorities, Tam warned the mainland was unlikely to accept any Covid-19 health code-sharing proposal unless Hongkongers submitted contact-tracing information.