Tania Sibree late last year quit her well-paid job as a financial services lawyer in Hong Kong and returned to Australia rather than live a moment longer with the territory’s strict COVID-19 restrictions.
Sibree, who said she had enjoyed the previous five years in Hong Kong, is one of hundreds — possibly thousands — of foreign expatriate professionals who have left or are planning to leave, threatening to dent the territory’s standing as one of the world’s financial hubs.
“The hotel quarantine made it just so tough for people to travel and that was the big incentive to being in Hong Kong, it was close to home and my parents, but you cannot do that long in hotel quarantine with kids,” she said. “Everyone had been thinking the restrictions would be lifted, it would get better and it would not go on for so long.”
Photo: AFP
COVID-19 infections in Hong Kong are much lower than most places in the world, but the territory is following Beijing’s “zero COVID” policy.
It has had stiff quarantines in place for two years, and last year introduced some of the world’s strictest entry rules, allowing only residents to return and mandatory hotel quarantine of up to three weeks for arrivals from most countries, regardless of vaccination status, paid for by the travelers themselves.
“The summer in Hong Kong will be the time when many people will throw in the towel and think to themselves: ‘This is just untenable,’” one capital markets investment banker said, on the condition of anonymity. “As a banker right now you’re much better off being based in Singapore. You can travel, and once or twice a year you could bite the bullet and come to Hong Kong and do the quarantine if you need to.”
More than 40 percent of members surveyed by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said that they were more likely to leave the territory, with most citing international travel restrictions as the leading factor.
“For the fastest growing sector of wealth and asset management there is a lack of trained supply of talent. If draconian travel restrictions continue for an undefined and lengthy period, the talent issue will become all the more serious,” chamber president Tara Joseph said. “Many in the industry also expect that eventually many jobs in the sector will be taken up by mainland Chinese talent, leading to a big talent shift.”
Hong Kong’s population declined 1.2 percent between mid-2020 and the middle of last year, with more than 75,000 people leaving, Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department data showed.
Since September, the territory has had five months of consecutive net outflow in travel, government immigration data showed.
Meanwhile, the total number of visa applicants from all countries under the “general employment policy” fell by one-third last year to 10,073. Applicants for the financial services sector were down 23 percent.
“The proposition of bringing people into Hong Kong is not happening,” said John Mullally, regional director for southern China and Hong Kong financial services at headhunter Robert Walters.
“The only people willing to do it are the international or very senior executives or very young people without families,” he said.
One financial analyst at a global research group who has called Hong Kong home for more than five years said that he has been waiting for the territory’s international borders to open so he can see his family and friends.
With no sign of a change, he said that he has decided to move back to the US in the second quarter.
“Basically, we need to see our families and there is no end in sight to travel restrictions, no roadmap or plan,” he said. “Eventually you quit waiting and realize moving is the only option.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the