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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
A reporter for Hong Kong Free Press

How Covid helped China tighten its hold on Hong Kong

The temporary bridge from Shenzhen to Hong Kong is used for transporting materials and workers to build a Covid-19 treatment facility in Lok Ma Chau.
The temporary bridge from Shenzhen to Hong Kong is used for transporting materials and workers to build a Covid-19 treatment facility in Lok Ma Chau. Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

Traffic is busier than usual in Lok Ma Chau, a village on Hong Kong’s northern border. Heavy-duty trucks shuttle mainland Chinese workers to and from the wetland district, where they are building a makeshift hospital to treat Covid-19 patients.

The hubbub would have been unimaginable a year or even a month ago. The Asian financial capital is separated from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen by a winding river. But in early March, a makeshift bridge linking the two cities was erected. Satellite images show the foundations of the structure being laid days before the Hong Kong government announced the project.

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