Hong Kong must find a rational way to ease tensions over mainland visitor influx
While many locals feel Hong Kong has reached the limits of its capacity to handle the rising number of mainland visitors, many do not approve of the raucous protests against them
In 2014, nearly 61 million tourists visited Hong Kong, 78 per cent of whom were from mainland China. Their visits have brought not only remarkable economic benefits to Hong Kong, but also huge social costs. Not only have the daily lives of Hong Kong people been affected, but social conflicts within the city and between Hong Kong and the mainland have also been heightened.
A series of provocative protests against tourists and parallel traders have recently occurred. The influx of mainland shoppers, coupled with a continuous growth in parallel trading activities, is irritating to many Hongkongers. The protests have become more violent since 2012. Slogans targeting mainland visitors - for example, "Chinese go back to China" and referring to mainlanders as "locusts" and "shina" - are blatantly discriminatory and vilifying.
The so-called "Recover Yuen Long" protest on March 1 and "Recover Sheung Shui, Tuen Mun and Tsim Sha Tsui" protests on March 8 not only ended in chaos, but also resulted in arrests and injuries. In particular, the protesters in Tuen Mun and Tsim Sha Tsui have become more unruly: shoppers pulling carry-on bags were deemed to be mainlanders and were insulted, hustled and physically blocked.
Chinese University's Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies conducted a survey in late February with the aim of understanding local people's perceptions of the individual visit scheme. While it was undertaken before the violent protests, it reflects public attitudes towards the implementation of the policy.
The survey shows that the majority of locals felt Hong Kong has reached the limit of its tourism handling capacity and would like to see a contraction of the scheme. Specifically, when the respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed that the number of individual visit scheme tourists now "exceeds Hong Kong's capacity", only 12.1 per cent disagreed, 63.3 per cent agreed, and 21.3 per cent took a neutral stance.
Compared to last year's figures, the proportion of respondents who agreed rose by 9.7 percentage points, whereas the percentage of those who disagreed or were neutral dropped by 5.1 and 5.9 percentage points respectively.
