Journey to Hong Kong

There is bitter hostility between Hong Kongers and mainlanders these days. For Hong Kong government and its officials, this is like a slap in their face. They have been preaching the integration of Hong Kong and mainland and all the accompanying benefits to Hong Kong. They did not envisage nor could recognize that there are serious issues with “integration”. Expectedly, the government is not saying anything on the conflict between Hong Kongers and mainlanders, not to mention doing anything about it.

I do not want to delve into the reasons, the history and psychology that may lead to the conflict. While I think it is absolutely wrong to disrespect people and label each other as “dog” or “locust”, I am most concerned that Hong Kong is losing its character, press freedom, academic freedom, and all in all its value system.

In other words, I feel that Hong Kong is becoming another Tibet, where the immigration/strong presence of newcomers not only dominates its economy but also change its economic, cultural and social fabrics.

Let me lay bare these facts to you:

- In 2010, 37% of the babies born in Hong Kong are of mainland parents; in 2011 the year of dragon, the first baby born in Hong Kong is of mainland parents.

- In 2011, mainlanders accounted for 28% of the total number of transactions and 37% of the total transaction amounts in the primary property market.

- In 2011, Hong Kong received over 25M mainland tourists, representing over 60% of the total number of tourists of the year.

- In Hong Kong’s universities, mandarin was heard spoken everywhere, with many mainland students either being offered scholarships to study here or whose families are rich enough to afford them studying here. Mainland scholars who have obtained their doctorates overseas also heavily fill the faculty rank in the local higher education sector.

Here’s what I see and hear:

- In Hong Kong’s main shopping areas, there remain only cosmetics shops, jewelers, luxury watch shops, and pharmacies which sell baby formula, all of which cater to the needs and purchasing power of mainland tourists. The smaller / traditional shops are dying due to soaring rents.

- The simplified Chinese is everywhere, even in supermarkets. (To date, I cannot read / refuse reading books in simplified Chinese – they are eye sores, a distorted writing system that is in force in the mainland for political reasons only.)

- Hong Kong’s housing price is among the world’s highest, with cash from mainland buoying the local property market.

- Uncivilized behavior is easily seen. A friend of mine told me she actually saw a mainland parent allow her child to pee in the middle of a shopping mall. As a mother, she also told me she genuinely felt lucky that she became a mother some years ago, not now otherwise she would have to fight with mainland mums for maternity service and school places for her kid.

- A mainland scholar in a Hong Kong University just caught himself in a scandal for publicizing a survey of the Chief Executive hopefuls even before the survey was properly done and was completed. Allegedly he wanted to curry the favor of one of the hopefuls.

- A Hong Kong based Beijing official recently repeatedly lambasted a scholar in The University of Hong Kong for “serving the interests of a specific political group” after this scholar’s public polling recently shows that a low proportion of Hong Kongers identify themselves as Chinese, and this same scholar proposed an online election of the Chief Executive involving all the residents.

- 440 people were arrested by the Hong Kong police for protests and demonstrations in 2011, compared to 57 in the previous year.

- The press has been having a hard time conducting interviews and doing reports in the new government headquarters at Tamar because of strict rules and unfriendly press arrangements and security guards.

Can the Hong Kong government see what is happening to the city? Of course it can. It just refuses to see. An unelected Chief Executive and government, they do not need to listen to the people, anyway. They need only to look up to Beijing. Next month, the government will implement a new policy that would allow mainland drivers from Guangdong Province to drive and travel in Hong Kong. Are they sane? Is Hong Kong not polluted and congested enough? Are there not enough mainland tourists? With Hong Kong reachable by MTR, where is the need to travel in Hong Kong by car?

If you can find some hope for Hong Kong, let me know.

Tsim Sha Tsui tonight was in full action. A procession of 100 people was marching along Tsim Sha Tsui’s Canton Road, which is lined with luxury shops, towards the Star Ferry pier. They had marched from Mongkok, in protest against the corporate greed of the local property developers and against the government for collusion with them. From the Star Ferry pier, they would take ferry to Central to support the “Occupy Central” campaign stationed at the ground floor of HSBC headquarters.

As tomorrow is Halloween day, some protesters wore mockery masks and costumes, and others carried caricatures.

Not far from the pier, two stages were set up for outdoor concerts organized by the cultural arm of Taiwan Government’s Office in Hong Kong. One stage was set against the Victoria Harbour, beautiful.

concert outside the Cultural Centre

Hong Kong rarely has free outdoor concerts. When there is one, it is funded by Taiwanese government. Isn’t it a mockery of Hong Kong Government?

We all know that they are interested in the HK Government Chief Executive (CE) post. And they have been one way or another canvassing public support. But none of them has expressed publicly their intention. So they are named CE candidate suspects in our conversations and in the media.

These suspects are Chief Secretary Henry Tang, convenor of the Executive Council Leung Chun-ying, and former President of Legislative Council Rita Fan, all pro-Beijing.

The so called ‘election’ will take place in March 2012, with the CE being elected by an 1200-member Election Committee, which represents about 0.01% of Hong Kong’s population. On top of that, we all know that only a pro-Beijing figure will be ‘elected’.

Isn’t it odd? Only about half a year is left from the March 2012 CE ‘election’, but we only have candidate suspects and the media jump on these suspects for comment whenever big issues arise, treating them as if they are real candidates, and rightly so.

Let me tell you more. The government has lately been criticized for deploying heavy security for the visit of Vice Premier Li Keqiang and violating freedom of speech. A man wearing a June 4 protest T-shirt stepped out the building where he lives and he was immediately followed and moved by police, because they did not want Vice Premier Li to see any protest. The building complex where the man lives was being visited by Li. 

Asked for comment, Henry Tang, widely seen as the forerunner in the CE ‘election’, simply shrugged off, saying the criticism is ‘completely rubbish’ . In another occasion, Henry Tang asked the youngsters of Hong Kong to learn to be the richest man in Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing.

Another candidate suspect, Rita Fan, when asked for comment on the heavy security, replied by asking Hong Kong people not to ‘overuse freedom’, saying that it does not matter if the protest can be seen or not by the state leader.  Anyway, she as a deputy to the National People’s Congress, was always shown ‘positive things’ in mainland China.

So this is the kind of language used by the CE candidate suspects and their mindset. What do you think of the future of Hong Kong? The city is so sealed in its fate.