Editor's note: Josef Gregory Mahoney is a professor of politics at East China Normal University. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The global COVID-19 pandemic continues unchecked in many jurisdictions, and poses a constant threat for subsequent waves in those places, including East Asia. 

Reports that South Korea is running short of hospital beds facing a new wave, and that Hong Kong, as a Chinese special administrative region, is still struggling to reestablish containment during its ongoing "third wave" provide stark warnings for places facing even more precarious conditions.

In the United Kingdom, for example, officials are worried that an ongoing uptick in cases indicate a difficult winter is coming, and are currently planning for the possibility of "extensive local lockdowns." 

Meanwhile, in Berlin, police recently broke up a large protest against COVID-19 containment efforts because many of the protestors refused to wear face masks and were violating social distancing rules. In the United States, deaths recently surpassed 180,000, with uncertainty of what comes next.

Even the most advanced countries are still months away from a possible vaccine. With worries that the coming winter will spike everywhere, "COVID-fatigue" has also become a factor. Many are emotionally, physically and financially exhausted by containment.

Unfortunately, others have exploited this with assertions that containment efforts are malignant government plots against social freedoms.

Hong Kong in the vanguard

The case of Hong Kong may prove a key when seeking lessons from this pandemic. While there are many global cities around the world that serve as important financial, logistical and cultural nodes, Hong Kong is in the vanguard of struggling with the epidemic while also struggling over local-national-global identity, connections, sovereignty and security.

From the outbreak's outset, many worried that protests in Hong Kong and some distrust of local and national government would weaken containment efforts. To a large extent, such concerns did not factor heavily into initial containment efforts, in part because local residents had experienced previous outbreaks, most notably SARS, and adapted quickly with little prodding.

However, such worries have resurfaced with efforts to confront Hong Kong's "third wave," which started in July, and has been blamed primarily on poor testing and quarantining of foreign arrivals, especially sea and air crews, from areas where the virus remains unchecked.

Although the local government has reacted by issuing a raft new policies including, for example, issuing a temporary ban against Air India on August 17, after several new cases were linked to one of their flights, the decision to welcome testing teams from Chinese mainland and roll out a mass testing scheme have divided public opinion.

Set to begin from September 1, local officials have pointed to 22,000 signing up for the test within 11 hours of being able to do so as a positive sign.

Nevertheless, some experts, including Professor Yuen Kwok-yung at Hong Kong University, who advises the local government on control efforts, publicly contend that a fourth wave is inevitable despite mass testing if better border controls are not reestablished.

Additionally, some locals have worried that testing will collect DNA that in turn might be used to construct a database that Beijing will be able to access and use for increasing surveillance and control. While local officials have assured this is not a legitimate concern, many remain unconvinced.

Mass testing is good but not enough

The local-global-national tensions and challenges that are especially pronounced in Hong Kong today are increasingly common around the world. Fears of surveillance and data collection, of privacy and freedom, are especially prevalent in liberal democracies. These include the U.S., where worries about increasing U.S. national, state and local government controls (in tandem with government incompetence and official dishonesty), along with the ever-increasing power of pharmaceuticals and technology firms, signal a dangerous new turn.

In fact, this turn happened years ago. Privacy, data security – perhaps nothing can guarantee these now and to a large extent they were already fundamentally compromised. This problem exists in every place where technology plays a major economic, governmental and cultural role.

To a larger extent, we have done this to ourselves, buying and using devices and apps that have fueled these changes and their ever complicated mix of costs and benefits. This is the world in which we were already living, prior to the outbreak, so nostalgia for an already-departed past cannot stand in place of the tools we have at hand for surviving the challenges we face now.

In Hong Kong's case, given local challenges but also local and national capacities, given likewise Hong Kong's role as a global city, having the capacity to conduct mass testing and then actually doing so indicates a tremendously positive opportunity that other places can only wish for.

But a single mass testing will not be enough. It's a critical step that will need to be paired with better border controls and likely, continued but targeted testing based on findings from the massive testing.

In these respects, Hong Kong remains very much on the frontline – their experiences providing invaluable insights for the rest of the world. And while those in other areas might sympathize with Hong Kong concerns, many would also happily trade places given the graver dangers to health and welfare they face in their own countries.   

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)