Approaching Hong Kong during the Acceleration of Mainlandization in the COVID-19 Crisis

At present, there are much more clinical studies and sociological studies related to public health issues than humanities studies to conceptualise the sophisticated evolution or devolution of China during the pandemic. However, insufficient focuses have been laid on interrelated practices that the Chinese government executes while the public prioritized their personal health. Similar to the side-tracking strategy that President Donald Trump adopted to dissolve the internal dissent against him, Chinese leaders were also dedicated to launching new policies and manipulating political discourses to maintain stability and security, especially after a series of, what they consistently term, “riots” happening in Hong Kong since mid-2019.

This article is concerned with how local contexts, as a methodological core, help to raise multiple enquiries into the currently accelerated mainlandization of Hong Kong. It proposes that various stakeholders (the Chinese government, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, and the pro-establishment Hong Kong public) are, no matter consciously or unconsciously, taking advantage of the public health crisis to move forward the central government’s progressive implementation of overall jurisdiction in response to the year-long social unrests caused by the controversial extradition law amendment, and Regional Studies scholars who care about China might reflect on contextual complicities to generate prospective perspectives.