By Trefor Moss
Fifteen years after its “return” to China, Hong Kong remains insecure about its future. Will Beijing respond to the city’s anxieties by relaxing or tightening its grip?
Fireworks are a theme of Hong Kong’s Chinese New Year celebrations. But this year has been more explosive than usual, as a nasty debate has flared over Hong Kong’s place in the Chinese cosmos. The spat has left relations between Hong Kong and the mainland, for all the cheerful astrology of the newly dawning Year of the Dragon, at their ugliest in nearly a decade.
Animals less seemly than dragons have been stalking the conversation between mainland commentators and their Hong Kong interlocutors. A trigger for much of the recent acrimony was a January TV appearance by Kong Qingdong, a Beijing academic, in which he described Hong Kongers as “running dogs” and “bastards” in reaction to a Hong Kong University poll suggesting that fewer Hong Kong people now identify themselves as Chinese citizens than at any time since the 1997 handover.
Though cynically provocative, Kong’s remarks reflected Beijing’s quiet frustration with Hong Kong’s insistence on remaining outside the Chinese mainstream. They also drew a fierce backlash from the sizeable section of Hong Kong society that regards the mainland’s influence as something to be resisted rather than embraced. Ever since the British exit, the city has been uncomfortable with what some perceive as the insidious erosion of the “one country, two systems” framework designed to cushion its return to the Chinese fold and to protect its most cherished rights, such as a free press, the right to protest, and an independent judiciary.
Lately, these concerns have assumed a demographic focus, with mounting alarm about mainland immigration and, in particular, the trend of pregnant mainland women travelling here (for the most part legally) to secure automatic Hong Kong citizenship for their babies. This angst was illustrated most graphically recently when a full-page advert in the Apple Daily, one of Hong Kong’s punchier newspapers, called for an end to what it termed “birth tourism.” The ad memorably depicted a gigantic locust looming over the city, conjuring images of creepy mainlanders poised to swamp Hong Kong once and for all.
The Hong Kong government, which runs the city’s affairs autonomously while answering ultimately to Beijing, had already placed a cap on the number of mainland mothers allowed to give birth here this year (at 34,000, down from 40,000 in 2011 – which was nearly half of all the babies born in the territory). However, a stricter limit, if not an outright ban, now appears likely in response to the public outcry: no less shocking for Hong Kong lawmakers than the infamous locust was the sight of hundreds of pregnant women and mothers marching on a brisk January day to bemoan their need to compete with mainlanders for space in the city’s hospital delivery rooms.
Photo Credit: Roger Wagner
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Frankie Fook-lun Leung
The Kwok brothers of Sun Hung Kai Properties and a former chief executive were arrested on corruption charges. What China worries should be the chinese style of corruption and abuse of governmental power where officials and commercial interests are in bed all the time. As Lee Kuan Yew correctly predicted, Hong Kong after change of sovereignty will become another chinese city. Indeed Mr. Lee was right. Hong Kong will become just as corrupt as any other chinese city. Soon.
Frankie Fook-lun Leung
The nmanipulation of the 2012 Chief Executive election is a clear-cut case of China’s control over the development of the political process of H K. The more worrying sign is the recent exposure of Donald Tsang’s acceptance of favors from tycoons. It illustrates in the eyes of the world that the perception of H K being run by a clean government is a myth. Corrupt Chinese bureaucratic practices have found their place in H K. It heralds the demise of One Country Two Systems.
wimpy
I am right in the middle in this one, my father is an original HK village person and my mum was a mainland refugee who got into HK the 50s. The majority of the people in HK now are of my mothers category, with mainland origins. So I think it’s absolutely outrageous that some HK people think they can look down on others of their own race in such a manner!
On the other hand I do understand what HK people mean. Some aspects of personal hygiene and consideration for others is sorely lacking in some mainlanders…But this is not their fault. China was a poor country, and only recently started catching up. It was a feat to bring a family up into adulthood, let alone teach them that spitting in public is unhygienic etc.
I hope all this infighting between Chinese people will stop…. It’s so sad we Chinese “stick together like sand”…It’s a big weakness…Something we need to work on… We need to learn to be considerate towards each other.
Adam
A very good an interesting article. Except for the reference to Wukan elections (which are almost certainly a sham), I think most of the author’s points are spot on.
Beijing has a very odd attitude towards Hong Kong. They ban certain Hong Kong websites and certain HK activists from coming to the mainland, but within HK, it seems like almost anything goes. On one hand, they say HK is inseparably China, but on the other hand, it’s very difficult for mainland tourists to visit. It was easier for my girlfriend to get a visa to Vietnam, for example, than it was for her to get a Hong Kong travel pass.
DownRedChina
Mainland worries not only Hong Kong, Mainland also worries the world. I wonder when the “Locust invasion” is going to stop – it’s shameful Mainlander drain social benefits belong to HK people. I wonder when IP theft will stop. I wonder when Tibetians stop setting themselves on fire. I wonder when Mailander stop invading sea water belongs to ASEAN nations. I wonder when Mainlander stop killing SK coast guard and unarmed fishermen. I wonder when Mainlander will stop detaining 6 year old school girl.
CCP is the root of all of the problems. CCP really worries the world.
David Khoo
Your “wonders” are misgiving, misguided; intended to take pot-shot at your target – meaning China.
Perhaps you care to read history of what the west had inflicted and plundered from Asia or the weaklings before you take your stance.