Wednesday’s opening of the Liantang Port/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point is arguably one of the few good pieces of news that Hong Kong people can count in these gloomy days, when life remains lackluster and even stressful for many under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cross-boundary link, the seventh land-based control point at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen boundary, will immediately help relieve the existing cross-boundary freight traffic — as well as the cross-boundary passenger traffic, when the link opens for passengers after the pandemic recedes.

Cross-boundary logistics is the immediate beneficiary of the new control point. Its opening is expected to facilitate the smoother and more efficient operation of cross-boundary logistics by cutting short travel distance and time as well as reducing traffic gridlock.

But more importantly, the new land link will facilitate Hong Kong’s economic integration with other parts of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It will also strengthen Hong Kong’s economic cooperation with other regions on the mainland, as the Liantang control point is connected with several mainland highways leading to eastern Guangdong province and southern Fujian and Jiangxi provinces.

For most Hong Kong people, the opening of the control point is welcome news, as it is expected to create valuable economic opportunities for many Hong Kong businesses and workers. Such opportunities are all the more important for Hong Kong people as the city’s traditional pillar industries are facing bottlenecks, and its role as the bridge between the Chinese mainland and other parts of the world is diminishing.

But many members of the opposition camp, particularly separatists, see the cross-boundary link as another eyesore. They left no stone unturned in their bid to thwart the project ever since it was announced simply because they hate anything that can bring Hong Kong and the mainland closer, either physically or psychologically. They also relentlessly opposed the construction of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, which connects Hong Kong to the mainland’s expansive high-speed rail network through Shenzhen; and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

Now that those projects facilitating economic integration between Hong Kong and the mainland have been completed; people from both sides are reaping the benefits of smoother and more-efficient traffic; and numerous economic opportunities have been created by virtue of easier flow of the means of production, including materials, capital and information. The political radicals should realize it is futile to stop Hong Kong’s integration into national development strategies, no matter how hard they try. This is particularly true as geopolitical developments are working against Hong Kong.