HK troublemakers are a political virus: Luo Huining

Liaison office director Luo Huining says a minority of people in Hong Kong are trying to create divisions amid the coronavirus outbreak, but they won't succeed. File photo: RTHK

Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong, Luo Huining, has condemned medical workers who went on strike earlier this month to demand a full border closure, saying such action is a "political form of coronavirus".



The director of the liaison office said despite the Covid-19 outbreak, a minority of people in the SAR are creating all kinds of conflicts, and the hospital staff even held their “strike to save Hong Kong” for political gain.



"How is this not for a political form of coronavirus?" Luo asked in a letter to Hong Kong delegates of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.



"What we need to do is to isolate the virus, not people’s hearts," he wrote.



Luo said people who try to take advantage of the current situation to "spread dissatisfaction" and deliberately undermine relations between Hong Kong and the mainland will not succeed.



"More and more Hong Kong people would agree, no one is an island, and Hong Kong shouldn’t become an island," he said.



Referring to the recent panic buying in the city, Luo said as long as the border is open, the relevant departments and mainland enterprises in Hong Kong will ensure a stable supply of food, tissues and sanitisers.



Thousands of public hospital staff staged a five-day strike early this month to try to force the government to completely shut the border with the mainland to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 to the city.



Chief Executive Carrie Lam eventually closed most of the border control points, leaving only the airport, Shenzhen Bay and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge open, saying this would reduce the number of cross-border travellers.



There have also been numerous protests over plans to open clinics for people who show mild symptoms of the new coronavirus.