Cruise ship evacuation a triumph of ‘one country, two systems’

The brilliance of “one country, two systems” shone yet again as the first of three chartered flights brought at least 102 of more than 300 Hong Kong residents who were stranded on board a cruise ship in Japan back to Hong Kong on Thursday morning. The emergency evacuation was arranged by the SAR government with crucial assistance from the central government and overseas Chinese groups based in Japan. Honestly speaking, it would have taken much longer, if not forever, to accomplish this feat without the help of the motherland. Thanks to concerted efforts by the central government authorities and the SAR government, the first group of passengers evacuated from Japan came home safely despite attempts by the opposition camp to block government plans to quarantine them at a public housing estate not yet occupied.

The repatriated Hong Kong residents will be quarantined at Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan, New Territories, for at least 14 days before they can go back home and be reunited with their families, if the relevant authorities are sure they pose no threat of infection by the 2019nCoV virus. This is the best way to bring home those Hong Kong passengers, exposed to the COVID-19 epidemic for over 10 days on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, without putting their families and neighborhoods at immediate risk of infection. That is why the great majority of Hong Kong people supported the SAR government’s plan instead of the opposition’s.

However, not many people were aware of the central government’s essential role in the success of this extremely challenging undertaking, which began almost as soon as the Japanese authorities refused to let passengers disembark the cruise ship. From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing to the Chinese Embassy in Japan, the Foreign Ministry’s Office of the Commissioner in the Hong Kong SAR and overseas Chinese groups in Japan, hundreds of people joined efforts to facilitate the return of the Hong Kong and Macao residents onboard the Diamond Princess.

When the SAR government decided to bring more than 300 residents home by chartered flights, it was a matter of course to seek the central government’s help, as it falls into the realm of foreign relations, with considerable red tape to cut through before those Hong Kong residents could be cleared to get off the cruise ship and take the flights home. So far, the SAR government has done a good job keeping the plan going smoothly despite blind opposition to the setup of temporary quarantine centers by you-know-who.

Now that the first 102 of them have settled into the temporary quarantine center at Chun Yeung Estate, members of the public are strongly cautioned against entering that area unless they absolutely have to and have obtained permission from the police as well as public health authorities. Hong Kong residents should also bear in mind that “one country, two systems” is the only constitutional guarantee they can count on when the SAR is in distress or if individual citizens need help, and that no one else can give them outside Hong Kong and the motherland.