Protests Widen Rift Between Hongkongers And Mainlanders

When Li was still attending middle school in a small city in Central China in the 1990s, she always dreamed about visiting Hong Kong where her favorite singers and movie stars came from

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2019) When Li was still attending middle school in a small city in Central China in the 1990s, she always dreamed about visiting Hong Kong where her favorite singers and movie stars came from. After she moved to the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, in the mid-2000s, Li began to visit her dream city more often and eventually became an online retailer in 2009, reselling products she could obtain from Hong Kong at lower prices.

However, everything changed for Li when massive protests erupted in Hong Kong in June, as visitors from mainland China like her began to feel a sense of uneasiness when they visited the city. While the majority of demonstrators in Hong Kong focused their grievances against the local government's policies and increased control from Beijing, a small number of radical protesters began to promote the "Hong Kong identity" and diverted their anger towards travelers from mainland China, especially those who dared to criticize the ongoing movement.

"Before the protests started on June, Hongkongers had already been a bit indifferent towards people from the mainland. Most of them would still present a kind attitude. But today, you [as someone from the mainland] would feel scared in your heart and try to avoid contact with locals as much as possible," Li, who only gave her surname due to the sensitivity of the situation, told Sputnik.

The deteriorating relationship between people from the mainland and locals in Hong Kong has also taken a huge toll on Li's online retailing business. She used to go to Hong Kong four times a month, carrying a 24-inch suitcase filled with various kinds of products including jewelry, cosmetics and luxury products ordered by her customers from the mainland. After the protests started, she only traveled to Hong Kong once a month with a small backpack.

"My sales have dropped over 75 percent. I could make 30,000 Yuan (about $ 4225) a month before. But in recent months, I could only make about 3000-5000 yuan a month. Some of my customers have decided to stop placing orders, because they wanted to boycott products from Hong Kong to denounce the separatist movement," Li said.

Although seeking independence is not part of the "five demands" from protesters in Hong Kong, Chinese state media has been focusing on such pro-independence sentiment among a small group of radical protesters to label the demonstrations as part of a separatist movement.

To paint a negative light about the protests, acts of violence, especially those targeting pro-Beijing supporters, have been amplified by Chinese state media. The video of protests tying up and beating a reporter working for the Global Times, a state-owned nationalistic tabloid, has been played repeatedly by Chinese media outlets. Videos of black-clad protesters chasing and beating pro-Beijing supporters have been featured prominently in the coverage of the ongoing crisis.

"When I went to Hong Kong before, I would always take pictures and post them on social media. But facing all protests-related posters in the streets, I wouldn't dare to take pictures because I've heard stories of people being beaten up for taking pictures," Li said.

Li expressed that she would avoid traveling to Hong Kong unless it is necessary for her business.

"Unless it's necessary for my business, I won't go to Hong Kong just for leisure. I'm very disappointed in the city, because I used to like Hong Kong a lot. It's really a pity, because everybody dreamed about going to Hong Kong in the 1990s," she said.

After the local tourism industry took a big hit during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, local authorities in Hong Kong appealed to the central government in Beijing to loosen the travel restrictions on people from the mainland as part of their efforts to revive the local economy.

Following the introduction of individual visit scheme in 2003, which allowed people from the mainland to travel to Hong Kong on an individual basis, the number of mainland tourists traveling to Hong Kong experienced explosive growth. The number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong jumped from 6.83 million in 2002 to 65.15 million in 2018, according to official figures.

The massive influx of visitors from the mainland has also had an adverse impact on the limited public resources in Hong Kong and caused a backlash from locals who expressed concerns over baby formulas being bought up and hospital beds being occupied by those from the mainland. The uncivilized behavior of some mainland tourists, including those who allowed their children to urinate in public spaces, have drawn more criticism from local residents in Hong Kong.

Tensions between local residents and mainland visitors further escalated in 2012, after a group of local residents in Hong Kong placed an advertisement in a popular local newspaper calling people from the mainland "locusts."

Hong Kong scholars admitted that there had been a rising anti-mainland sentiment among local residents.

"The protests movement definitely has its anti-mainlandization character, because many locals in Hong Kong believe that the city has become more mainlandized in the past 22 years, meaning politically Hong Kong is depending on China's political wish and economically Hong Kong is depending on mainland tourists and investments. The broader context is the anti-mainlandization atmosphere," Sonny Lo, a political scientist at the University of Hong Kong School of Professional and Continuing Education, told Sputnik.

However, Professor Lo argued that the dangers facing mainland tourists in Hong Kong have been exaggerated by the media.

"I think the local media in Hong Kong and media on mainland China have exaggerated the extent of the anti-mainland sentiment in Hong Kong.

Some locals have directed their anger at the changing political and social landscape of Hong Kong. Some of the radical locals put the blame on mainland-related organizations like banks or stores, which were attacked. For the mainland tourists who come to Hong Kong, basically, they should be safe," he said.

The scholar explained that mainland visitors would continue to play an important role in reviving the local economy, which experienced serious disruptions during the protests.

"But the mainland tourists should be careful when they into the streets on weekends. They should avoid those districts suddenly filled with radical protesters. Apart from that, I think Hong Kong people still welcome mainland tourists, because businesses in Hong Kong have suffered tremendously. From a pragmatic point of view, many business people in Hong Kong would like to see mainland tourists coming back," he said.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam admitted on Wednesday that more than four months of continues protests and unrest have turned the local economy into a "technical recession."

After witnessing the disruptions caused by protesters in Hong Kong firsthand during her recent procurement trip to the city, Li, the Shenzhen-based online retailer, said the experience made her treasure the stability on the mainland much more.

"This incident [in Hong Kong] has become a lesson for us to learn more about politics. Even a government has its flaws, as long as it can ensure stability and allow you to live in safety. That's already not easy. For many Chinese who have some ideas about the events in 1989, the current crisis in Hong Kong could serve as a good lesson on patriotic education. Many of my friends who questioned the government's decision in 1989 have changed their views after what happened in Hong Kong. They began to realize that the government made the right decision in 1989 and avoided the kind of disruptions taking place in Hong Kong today," she said.

Facing a similar pro-democracy movement in China in 1989, Chinese authorities mobilized the military to crack down on the protesters, who were mostly led by university students, in Beijing. Thousands of demonstrators were allegedly killed as tanks and live ammunition were used against them. Chinese authorities defended their bloody crackdown as necessary to prevent the country from descending into chaos triggered by a "counter-revolutionary riot."

Academics in Hong Kong pointed out that differing views about the existing political system in mainland China could make it difficult for Hongkongers and people from the mainland to bridge their gap in understanding each other.

"What the protests are really about is that Hongkongers simply don't want to be more and more like mainland China. They see mainland China as a place where freedoms are quite limited. Hongkongers really want to keep their rule of law and the freedom of expression. There's generally not a dislike of Chinese people. But there is very much a dislike of the Chinese system. Hongkongers do not want to have that system," Gordon Mathews, an anthropology professor specializing in the Hong Kong identity at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told Sputnik.

Professor Mathews explained that it would be more difficult for visitors from the mainland to understand the perspective of Hongkongers because they only spend a few days in the city.

"I'm the chair of the anthropology department here. I do find that, between our Masters of Arts students and undergraduates, we can create a degree of acceptance of one another. Once people get to know each other, it's not that hard to do. However, for tourists, it's really hard because they only come for a couple of days to go shopping. Tourists don't have time to understand why the protesters are doing what they're doing. I think a typical view a mainland tourist would have is 'oh, these violent protesters only need to be suppressed. Why are they doing these terrible things?' But I would guess 80 percent of the people in Hong Kong are in favor of the protesters," he said.

The heavy censorship in mainland China played an important role in shaping the views of people from the mainland about the protests in Hong Kong, the scholar argued.

Professor Mathews pointed out that if Hongkongers were successful in preserving and protecting their existing political freedoms, the difference in political views between Hongkongers and people from mainland China would continue to persist because they live under different systems.

Professor Lo expressed similar sentiment about the difference in political values between Hong Kongers and people from mainland China.

"People born in mainland China tend to cherish stability and they see politics as relatively negative. People born in Hong Kong, especially the protesters, appear to view political conflicts as almost normal and they see social stability as not necessarily good for the society. I'm afraid this kind of dichotomy will persist. I think the 2019 protests have a long-term everlasting impact on Hong Kong. From now until 2047, I think such protests would occur in Hong Kong occasionally, if not regularly," he said.

Under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the United Kingdom and China agreed to an arrangement, known as "One Country, Two Systems", which would allow Hong Kong to become the city became a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China where local residents enjoyed separate political, economic and individual freedoms for at least 50 years after the handover in 1997.