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Hong Kong-Mainland conflict

Definition
Hong Kong-Mainland conflict (Chinese: 中港矛盾) refers to the conflict between people from Hong Kong and mainland China due to the strong indigenousness developed under the “One country, two systems” constitutional principle implemented with the birth of the HKSAR. Hong Kong people believe that they are different from mainlanders mainly in terms of politics, culture and language.

Background
Hong Kong-mainland China relations have become increasingly fluctuated since the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China in 1997. To reinforce the economic relations with the mainland, the Hong Kong government has implemented some controversial policies, for instance, the Individual Visit Scheme and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link. Hong Kong has a culture that is influenced by England a lot as it had been the British Colony before. Hence the culture in mainland China is quite different from that in Hong Kong. Hong Kong-Mainland conflict is mainly attributed to the cultural differences between Hong Kong people and mainlanders, such as languages, as well as the significant growth in number of mainland visitors. Since the implementation of Individual Visit Scheme on 28 July 2003, the number of mainland visitors increased from 6.83 million in 2002 to 40.7 million in 2013, according to the statistics provided by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. The conflict associates to issues regarding the allocation of resources between mainlanders and Hong Kong people in different sectors, such as healthcare and education.

Related Incidents
In recent years, there were some incidents showing conflicts between Hong Kongers and mainlande”s.

Tour guide Lee Qiaozhen verbally abused mainland tourist
On February 5 2011, Lee Qiaozhen, a Hong Kong tour guide, had a quarrel with three mainland tourists. Lee verbally insulted the tourists for not buying at a jewellery store, such as calling them as “dogs”. The tourists were dissatisfied and this eventually turned into a fight. Lee and the three tourists were arrested by the police for physical assault .

Parallel trading(smuggling) in Hong Kong
Since 2012, there have been more mainland parallel traders coming to the northern parts of Hong Kong to import goods and export them back to mainland, which earns them some money for each transfer. Some products that are popular among these traders, such as infant formula, faced shortage in Hong Kong for an extended time as a result. This made the government impose restrictions on the amount of milk powder exports from Hong Kong. Besides, since northern places like Sheung Shui became the transaction centers of the traders, this resulted in discontent from nearby residents

Anchor babies in Hong Kong
In recent years till 2012, the number of anchor babies in Hong Kong had been increasing. Their parents came from mainland to give birth in Hong Kong, which resulted in their children having the right to abode in Hong Kong and enjoy social welfare there. Some Hong Kong people criticised that the pregnant women and anchor babies put heavier burden on Hong Kong’s medical system. Some of them even called them as ‘locusts’ which take away Hong Kong’s resources.

Impact
The conflict between Hong Kong People and mainlanders poses immense impact on Hong Kong society.

Rise of local’s awareness in self-identity
The major significance is the rise of local’s awareness in self-identity. With reference to the survey conducted by public opinion programme, The University of Hong Kong, the identity index of interviewee who regarded themselves as ‘Chinese’ plummeted in between years of 2008-2014, from approximately 7.5 from 2008 to a continuous fluctuation of the range between 6-7. The drop in sense of national identity is believed as the result of the mentioned conflicts above. The recent conflicts ( Anchor Babies, D&G crisis, Parallel trading) further contributed to the rise of local’s awareness in self identity.

Exacerbation of conflicts between local and mainlanders
With differences in cultures and political backgrounds in between Hong Kong and China- Hong Kong was ruled by British in the system of Ladder Patten throughout 1850s til 1997, whereas China was under the controlled of CPC since 1949. The education that people received, the culture, lifestyle were very different which lead to cultural conflicts. Some Hong Kong people perceive mainlanders as rude, impolite, poorly educated. This further leads to unacceptance of locals to mainlanders, especially when they travel in Hong Kong. mainland-travellers are growing in a tremendous number that their existence can influence the direction of government’s policies. Long term conflicts cause to anti-mainlanders feeling. Content of many recent protests were related to the issue of the individual visit scheme adversely strike against the daily life of Hong Kong.