HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader said Saturday that China has agreed to a reopening of town’s border with the mainland, which has been largely closed by pandemic restrictions, and that he’s aiming for a mid-January start.
Chief Executive John Lee, getting back from a visit to Beijing where he met President Xi Jinping and other officials, told reporters on the Hong Kong airport that the 2 sides would develop a plan to reopen the border in a gradual and orderly manner.
The announcement got here as China is easing a “zero-COVID” policy that has restricted entry to the country, isolated infected people and locked down areas with outbreaks.
Hong Kong is a semi-autonomous Chinese territory that borders Guangdong province in southeast China. People must go through immigration to cross between the 2, and most land and sea entry points have been closed and controls tightened due to pandemic.
Lee has made a full reopening of the border a priority to spice up town’s flagging economy. The difficulty was considered one of several on his agenda for this week’s trip to Beijing to deliver an annual report back to the central government, his first such report since taking office on July 1.
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He offered no details on how the border is perhaps reopened, and whether it will include an elimination of the five days of hotel quarantine required for people entering mainland China.
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