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Hong Kong, China – In Hong Kong’s bustling Mong Kok district, on a recent busy summer weekend, customers streamed in and out of bars and restaurants.
But there was not a customer in sight at Shinko’s popular Japanese izakaya restaurant.
The restaurant was forced to suspend night service for 14 days after a customer failed to produce a valid vaccination record during a police raid in mid-July.
Other restaurants have received similar penalties under Hong Kong’s epidemic laws, which include restrictive measures long before they leave elsewhere, with Shinko’s owners convinced they have received disproportionate scrutiny from authorities because of their political beliefs.
“Hong Kong’s business environment makes me feel powerless, it makes me wonder if the authorities want to prevent us from doing business in Hong Kong,” one of the restaurant owners, Hei, told Al Jazeera.
Shinko was one of the Hong Kong businesses that supported the 2019 mass pro-democracy protests, which began as peaceful protests that began with extradition to the Chinese province before turning into a wider movement.
Businesses like Shinko are known as part of the “yellow economy” — the color yellow is associated with pro-democracy sentiment in the Chinese-ruled city.
Once an integral part of the political landscape, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has been largely silenced since Beijing imposed draconian national security laws on the territory in 2020.
Most of the movement’s leaders have been imprisoned, deposed or exiled, despite China’s pledge to renounce its rights and freedoms after the former British colony returned to China. Media and civil society, once seen as one of the most independent people in the region, are toeing the government’s line.
For “yellow” businesses, many of which were known for displaying pro-democracy paraphernalia during the 2019 protests, the city’s new reality means scrutinizing Beijing’s allies. The institutions include the speaker media, which has repeatedly accused the government of “spreading separatism” by protesting the government’s COVID-19 restrictions and displaying protest slogans and banners.
Hay, who asked not to use her full name, said her business has strictly followed the government’s COVID-19 restrictions to avoid complications, in part because she expects more scrutiny, including hiring more staff to check customers’ vaccination records.
But Haye said her restaurant still receives more attention than others in the neighborhood, with the establishment undergoing five outbreak-related inspections since July alone.
Under Hong Kong’s strict epidemic laws, designed to align with mainland China’s “zero COVID” strategy, customers who violate the law could face a fine of HK$5,000 ($637), while the establishment in question could have its opening hours restricted for 14 days. Customers entering pubs must present a negative Covid-19 test for the past 24 hours, while owners are required to meet technical requirements for ventilation and air filtration.
Some “yellow” business owners try to keep a low profile on social media to avoid attracting the attention of authorities, Hei said.
“But I realized that it doesn’t matter, no matter what profile you have, if they want to catch you, they’re going to come,” she said.
Both the Hong Kong Police Force and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) conduct inspections to ensure compliance with Covid-19 restrictions.
From March 2020 to August 2022, police conducted more than 52,000 inspections, resulting in 890 warnings, 3,258 fine tickets and 638 charges. The feds said they conducted more than 605,000 inspections and 2,432 charges were filed against them. It also said 1,257 recipes faced “expiration” penalties.
When asked about the criteria required to select a police business for inspection, he said the details of the operations “should not be disclosed” but officers would act “based on facts” and in accordance with the law.
“The sole purpose of police operations is to appeal to the public to strictly follow the relevant laws in order to reduce the risks of transmission. [the] virus,” said a police spokesman.
Despite the measures, Shinko was fined after a raid in mid-July and had to stop dining services after 6pm. Haye’s staff checked customers’ immunization records upon check-in, but one customer did not provide a valid QR code when questioned by police.
The suspension of dining services has halved Shinko’s take, resulting in six-figure losses. There is currently no way for businesses to appeal fines against them.
While official guidelines require establishments to verify clients’ immunization records prior to entry, they do not specify whether owners are required to verify the accuracy of these records.
“If an operator does due diligence by scanning a customer’s QR code that turns out to be a fraud, they will be charged HK$5,000. [$637] A permanent penalty notice would be issued to the client,” said a FEHD spokesperson.
Hay said in the future, employees may have to scan people’s ID cards to match their names to their vaccination records, though many chain restaurants simply ask customers to scan their own vaccination passes when they enter.
Some entrepreneurs have chosen to close shop and go overseas. Herbert Chow, owner of the pro-democracy clothing and retail chain Chick-fil-A, left Hong Kong in May after police raided a store where he prominently displayed protest slogans.
In August, Chikekeke, which has been repeatedly described as a national security threat by Beijing media, announced that all of its stores would close after its lease expired.
Although Chow promised to return to Hong Kong, he later announced on social media that he plans to continue his work in the UK.
Others, including 37-year-old Teddy Ng, who ran a food delivery and online retail business in Hong Kong, sought a fresh start in nearby Taiwan.
In July, Ng announced that the nearly 10-year-old restaurant would close after its lease expires in September. His online retail site, where he employs 25 people along with the restaurant, will also disappear.
Ng said he was proud of the restaurant’s survival of the epidemic, but was disappointed by the government policies that forced him out.
“These Covid restrictions are interfering with our daily activities, but are they effective?” Ng told Al Jazeera that Hong Kong has failed to follow the global trend of living with Covid-19.
While Hong Kong earlier this month introduced a mainland-China-style health code for entry to establishments such as bars and restaurants, countries such as the UK, France and New Zealand have long since scrapped vaccination passes. Despite being the “World City of Asia”, Hong Kong is still one of the few jurisdictions that require hotel quarantine on arrival.
Although Ng’s move to Taiwan means giving up his ten-year business relationship and client base in Hong Kong, he has found the new environment too daunting and hopes to open a restaurant in Taipei in October.
Like Shinko, Yung’s restaurant in Hong Kong has also been targeted by pro-government media and subjected to frequent inspections. Hong Kong is not really a free market because of the political sentiment in the city and the COVID-19 restrictions, he said.
“That’s why he’s willing to leave all these things and start somewhere new,” Ng said.
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