By: KOO Chi Tung 顧知桐Edited by: Robin Ewing

The policy reversal that will continue to allow Hongkongers to return from Guangdong province without quarantine was not based on external pressure, Chief Executive Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said before the weekly Executive Council meeting this morning. Last Saturday, the Centre for Health Protection announced that Guangdong province would be listed as medium risk after a Covid-19 case was found in Guangzhou, effectively cancelling the Return2hk scheme for the province. The Return2hk travel scheme, launched in November, allows residents returning from certain areas of the mainland, including Guangdong province and Macao, to be exempt from 14-day quarantine. Former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying questioned the move in a post on Facebook at 8:36 pm that night, saying the plan was a puzzle. “The area of Guangzhou city is 7,434 sq km. The area of remaining places in Guangdong Province is 23 times larger than Guangzhou city. When there is a case in Guangzhou, Return2hk cannot apply to the whole province. This is what I am unable to understand,” he wrote in the Facebook post. Two hours after Mr Leung’s critical post, the government announced only the Jinlong Huixin building in Guangzhou, where the case was found, would be classified as medium risk. Mrs Lam said today the original arrangement was “not very proportionate”. “When the government officials knew about the decision, they thought that immediate adjustments were needed and made it that night,” she said. She said the Secretary for Food and Health had the authority to decide the locations placed on the risk list and that they acted according to the existing mechanism. The next step is to allow mainland residents to come to the city with quotas and certain restrictions in order to boost labour flow, Mrs Lam added at the press conference. She said she is still discussing with …

A mainland Chinese man was sentenced to six years and four months imprisonment in a Hong Kong court today for wounding with intent a young protestor who was distributing leaflets in Tai Po during the anti-extradition bill movement in 2019. Liu Guosheng, a 24-year-old cook, slashed the neck and stabbed the abdomen of a 19-year-old student in a pedestrian tunnel near the Tai Po Market MTR station on Oct. 19, 2019. Judge Andrew Chan Hing-wai said the attack was premeditated as the defendant purchased a fruit knife a day before the incident despite the victim being randomly chosen. He added the defendant was persistent in his attack and his intention was to kill the victim. He also said the injuries of the victim were serious and far-reaching, including physical pain for a long period of time and psychological impact, which was the most difficult to treat. “The life of a very young man has been ruined,” the judge said. He described the case as “one of the senseless episodes” during the protest in 2019. The judge said the use of violence did not and would not resolve any political differences. He said six months remission was given to the defendant for his voluntary surrender.