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[h=2]President Hu urges Hong Kong people to embrace the mainland[/h]
July 1st, 2012 |
Author: Editorial
Hu JinTao
President of the People’s republic of China(PRC), Mr Hu JinTao, arrived in Hong Kong on 29 June to mark the 15th anniversary of the territory’s handover back to Chinese rule on 1 July 1997. He will also be attending the inaugural ceremony of Hong Kong’s new leader elect, Mr Leung Chun Ying, as the new Chief Executive of Hong Kong today(1 July 2012). During the visit, he called for unity between the people of China and Hong Kong.
His visit was initially welcomed warmly by residents of the former British colony, where flag-waving school children greeted him when he touched down at the airport. However, strong public protest is widely expected due to the high level mistrust against PRC in the territory.
“The Central government would like to use the valuable experience gained over the past 15 years with the people of all sectors in Hong Kong, to unite together and look forward to further promote the practice of “one country, two systems,” said Mr Hu in a public statement.
HK leader-elect Leung Chun Ying
One Country, Two systems is the political system which guides the relationship between China and Hong Kong. Under this system, the territory will be able to keep their economy running according to capitalistic and free market ideals. They will also be able to pass their own laws, maintain their Hong Kong dollar, formulate their own policies on education, culture, sports, social welfare system, etc. The Central government’s role will be responsible only for foreign affairs and defense.
Mr Hu’s visit comes at a time when anti-Mainland sentiments in Hong Kong are running at an all-time high. The territory have been facing a relentless influx of mainland mothers flocking to the territory to give birth, with the hope that their children can enjoy the territory’s much better standard of living as well as quality of education. This placed an immense resource strain in both the territory’s public and private hospitals. In 2011 nearly half of all babies born in Hong Kong (38,043 out of 80,131) were born to mainland Chinese mothers.
Besides “child-birth tourism”, Property prices, a problem affecting many Hong Kong home-buyers as bad as property prices in Singapore affects Singaporeans, have also been largely blamed on the influx of wealthy Mainland Chinese property investors. In 2011, a-third of all residential property transactions are carried out by Mainland buyers. Home prices also rose as much as 70% since 2009.
Professor Kong Qing Dong
In January 2012, a Peking University professor Kong Qingdong, made televised remarks suggesting that many Hong Kongers are “running dogs” of the British Empire who still harbored colonial mentality. He was responding to the release of a survey result finding that Hong Kong people generally feel culturally separated from Mainland Chinese, a result of Hong Kong having been under British colonial rule for over a century. His comments infuriated many Hong Kong residents.
Funds to purchase a full-page advertisement in Apple Daily, one of Hong Kong’s leading newspapers. were raised. It was published on 1 Feb 2012 and featured a giant locust overlooking the city skyline of Hong Kong. The locust have over the years, grown to be used by Hong Kongers to represent PRCs. In many Hong Kongers’ opinion, they are eating away at the city’s limited resources, especially in the areas of healthcare and housing.
The "locust" advertisement
The caption on the ad reads “Would you like to see Hong Kong spend HK$1 million every 18 minutes on the children of non-Hong Kongers? Hong Kongers have had enough!”
Some of these sentiments also got carried over to Singapore, when mainland Chinese student Sun Xu who studies at the National University of Singapore wrote a message “in Singapore there are more dogs than humans” on a online forum.
The ensuing online furor caused Sun Xu to face disciplinary actions and the Chinese embassy in Singapore apologized for the comment. A similar advertisement, this time featuring the locust overlooking the Singapore skyline, carrying a somewhat similar message, got widely circulated in Singapore’s online forums.
Mr Hu’s visit is believed to be met with strong public protests by pro-democracy activists. Police have cordoned off the areas around the hotel where Mr Hu will be staying, as well as the areas around where the inaugural ceremony will be held. Designated protest zones were marked out by police and are kept under tight security.
.
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President of the People’s republic of China(PRC), Mr Hu JinTao, arrived in Hong Kong on 29 June to mark the 15th anniversary of the territory’s handover back to Chinese rule on 1 July 1997. He will also be attending the inaugural ceremony of Hong Kong’s new leader elect, Mr Leung Chun Ying, as the new Chief Executive of Hong Kong today(1 July 2012). During the visit, he called for unity between the people of China and Hong Kong.
His visit was initially welcomed warmly by residents of the former British colony, where flag-waving school children greeted him when he touched down at the airport. However, strong public protest is widely expected due to the high level mistrust against PRC in the territory.
“The Central government would like to use the valuable experience gained over the past 15 years with the people of all sectors in Hong Kong, to unite together and look forward to further promote the practice of “one country, two systems,” said Mr Hu in a public statement.
One Country, Two systems is the political system which guides the relationship between China and Hong Kong. Under this system, the territory will be able to keep their economy running according to capitalistic and free market ideals. They will also be able to pass their own laws, maintain their Hong Kong dollar, formulate their own policies on education, culture, sports, social welfare system, etc. The Central government’s role will be responsible only for foreign affairs and defense.
Mr Hu’s visit comes at a time when anti-Mainland sentiments in Hong Kong are running at an all-time high. The territory have been facing a relentless influx of mainland mothers flocking to the territory to give birth, with the hope that their children can enjoy the territory’s much better standard of living as well as quality of education. This placed an immense resource strain in both the territory’s public and private hospitals. In 2011 nearly half of all babies born in Hong Kong (38,043 out of 80,131) were born to mainland Chinese mothers.
Besides “child-birth tourism”, Property prices, a problem affecting many Hong Kong home-buyers as bad as property prices in Singapore affects Singaporeans, have also been largely blamed on the influx of wealthy Mainland Chinese property investors. In 2011, a-third of all residential property transactions are carried out by Mainland buyers. Home prices also rose as much as 70% since 2009.
In January 2012, a Peking University professor Kong Qingdong, made televised remarks suggesting that many Hong Kongers are “running dogs” of the British Empire who still harbored colonial mentality. He was responding to the release of a survey result finding that Hong Kong people generally feel culturally separated from Mainland Chinese, a result of Hong Kong having been under British colonial rule for over a century. His comments infuriated many Hong Kong residents.
Funds to purchase a full-page advertisement in Apple Daily, one of Hong Kong’s leading newspapers. were raised. It was published on 1 Feb 2012 and featured a giant locust overlooking the city skyline of Hong Kong. The locust have over the years, grown to be used by Hong Kongers to represent PRCs. In many Hong Kongers’ opinion, they are eating away at the city’s limited resources, especially in the areas of healthcare and housing.
The caption on the ad reads “Would you like to see Hong Kong spend HK$1 million every 18 minutes on the children of non-Hong Kongers? Hong Kongers have had enough!”
Some of these sentiments also got carried over to Singapore, when mainland Chinese student Sun Xu who studies at the National University of Singapore wrote a message “in Singapore there are more dogs than humans” on a online forum.
The ensuing online furor caused Sun Xu to face disciplinary actions and the Chinese embassy in Singapore apologized for the comment. A similar advertisement, this time featuring the locust overlooking the Singapore skyline, carrying a somewhat similar message, got widely circulated in Singapore’s online forums.
Mr Hu’s visit is believed to be met with strong public protests by pro-democracy activists. Police have cordoned off the areas around the hotel where Mr Hu will be staying, as well as the areas around where the inaugural ceremony will be held. Designated protest zones were marked out by police and are kept under tight security.
.
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