Because the 1997 handover, 879,000 mainland Chinese language residents have settled in Hong Kong, the place they now comprise 12 p.c of the inhabitants. Waves of sociopolitical unrest, together with the 2012 anti-national training meeting, the 2014 Umbrella Motion, and the 2019 anti-extradition invoice demonstrations, have compounded the degrees of anti-Chinese language sentiment within the metropolis. Heightened ranges of Sinophobia have been largely attributed to Hong Kong residents’ need to guard their native identification in opposition to a perceived invasion of mainland Chinese language tradition, language, and values.
Regardless of the rising Hong Kong-mainland China tensions, President Xi Jinping on October 14, 2020 inspired Hong Kong residents to work and dwell within the Higher Bay Space, in remarks in the course of the fortieth anniversary celebration of Shenzhen’s standing as a particular financial zone. In so doing, Xi hopes to spice up the socioeconomic integration of Hong Kong residents into the motherland. The Higher Bay Space is a megalopolis within the southern coastal space of China, consisting of 9 mainland Chinese language cities, Hong Kong, and Macau. Regardless of the rising regional affect of the Higher Bay Space, together with the fast monetary technological improvement of Shenzhen, and Hong Kong’s unaffordable residential costs, Hong Kong residents as a complete are reluctant to relocate to the mainland for the long-term.
Though Hong Kong has been experiencing an unprecedented sociopolitical divide, together with anti-Hong Kong authorities sentiments, the town, relative to mainland China, stills gives native residents and particularly residents a fascinating diploma of public welfare. As core pillars of Hong Kong’s monetary success within the latest many years, Hong Kong gives world-class medical and academic providers, the place all native residents, even with out Hong Kong citizenship, can take pleasure in free medical consultations and therapies in public hospitals, in addition to 12 years of free training in public faculties. And that training is top-notch. In response to the Group for Financial Cooperation and Improvement’s 2018 Program for Worldwide Scholar Evaluation, Hong Kong college students ranked fourth out of 79 economies in mathematical literacy and ninth in scientific literacy.
Furthermore, in comparison with mainland China, Hong Kong has a by way more clear, semi-independent judicial system. This stays true regardless of the implementation final yr of the Nationwide Safety Legislation in Hong Kong, the place mainland Chinese language authorities have reportedly bypassed the town’s jurisdiction to arrest pro-democracy dissenters. In mainland China, the federal government is thought to muzzle dissenters and critics by making them disappear, placing their households underneath home arrest based mostly on trumped up fees, threatening to kill their households, and forbidding them from leaving China. These infamous regulation enforcement practices have considerably lowered Hong Kong residents’ belief within the mainland Chinese language authorized system. The dearth of belief discourages Hong Kongers from contemplating relocation to different cities within the Higher Bay Space, because the mainland has but to display its willingness or efforts to keep up socio-legal justice.
These discrepancies between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese language governance proceed to propel Hong Kong residents’ doubts. With the fast financial development in mainland China, together with in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, mainland Chinese language workers’ wage ranges have been hovering. Nonetheless, much less strong social safety and authorized uncertainty stay main non-economic devices that downgrade the dwelling requirements within the mainland in comparison with Hong Kong.
It is usually noteworthy that Hong Kongers have been entitled to a comparatively free circulation of data. Not like in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau residents can entry main Western web sites and social media, together with Google, YouTube, Fb, and Twitter, in addition to most, if not all, international educational and leisure on-line content material. If Hong Kong residents relocate to the mainland part of the Higher Bay Space, they are going to be topic to strict web censorship and stripped off the proper to free entry to data – a basic civil proper that Hong Kong residents can hardly dwell with out.
It’s unquestionable that mainland China’s international financial affect has been rocketing in latest many years. Nonetheless, Hong Kongers closely worth the non-economic advantages of dwelling of their metropolis. Within the close to future, mainland China is exceedingly unlikely to make modifications that may fulfill potential Hong Kong migrants’ expectations for the same high quality of life. In consequence, Hong Kong residents’ socioeconomic integration into mainland China could progress slowly at finest.
