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Hong Kong talent drive: as expats trickle in, wave of mainland Chinese sparks concern about city’s diversity, international status
- Mainlanders made up more than nine in 10 of all approved to come under various talent schemes this year
- Foreigners arriving from UK, US and Australia from January to July comprised only a fifth of 2018 figure
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Hong Kong pulled out the stops to woo talent, but foreigners who left during the Covid-19 pandemic have been slow to return. In the first of a two-part series, Laura Westbrook and Lars Hamer describe the influx of mainland Chinese and what it might mean for the city. Read part two here.
Sichuan-born business analyst Wang Yu, 30, counts the ways life has turned out better for her since she moved to Hong Kong in January.
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“I do not need VPN for YouTube, Twitter or Facebook, I get paid HK$15,000 [US$1,900] more and the tax is lower,” she said.
The workplace was also an improvement on the rigid office hierarchies and “rigorous overtime culture” in mainland China, she added.
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Wang was based in Shenzhen before moving to Hong Kong on a work visa for mainlanders, the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals.
She recalled that on visits to the city before the Covid-19 pandemic, she would worry about speaking Mandarin rather than Cantonese. Now, however, she has found Mandarin being spoken much more widely.
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