Hong Kong rails against invasion of Chinese 'locusts'
Resentment of mainland Chinese in Hong Kong is at an all-time high following the publication of an advertisement in a local newspaper comparing people from China to locusts.
11:12AM GMT 02 Feb 2012
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A giant locust looms menacingly over the Hong Kong skyline in the full-page ad in the Apple Daily, while the text underneath it rails against the so-called "birth tourists", the mainland Chinese mothers who come to Hong Kong in increasing numbers to have their babies.
In Hong Kong, "locust" is a derogatory term for immigrants and tourists from China and the ad has struck a chord amongst residents so dissatisfied with their mainland compatriots that, 15 years after Hong Kong ceased to be a British colony, more than twice as many people identify themselves as citizens of Hong Kong rather than of China.
The Apple Daily advert, which was paid for by Hong Kong's leading web portal hkgolden.com, appeared on Thursday and "strongly demands" an end to the "unlimited infiltration of mainland Chinese couples into Hong Kong".
The children of mainland parents born in Hong Kong are entitled to residency and so many mothers are now coming to Hong Kong to give birth that both hospitals and schools are oversubscribed.
Last month, thousands of pregnant women took to the streets to protest at the way public services are being squeezed by the influx of mainlanders.
Earlier this week, Hong Kong's government bowed to anger over the issue and cut the quota of mainland mothers allowed to give birth each year from 10,000 to 3,400. Next year, they may be barred completely.
But "birth tourists" are just one of the many reasons for the increasingly bitter war of words between Hong Kong's 7 million residents and the 1.3 billion people in China. Hong Kongers resent the way mainland immigrants have pushed up property prices and regard tourists from China as uncouth.
In turn, mainlanders view Hong Kongers as overly superior and patronising.
When a video of locals arguing with Chinese tourists who were eating on the Hong Kong subway went viral last week, a Peking University professor lambasted Hong Kongers as "b-------", "thieves" and "dogs of British imperialists".
A vast cultural divide continues to separate Hong Kong, which prides itself on its legitimate entrepreneurial energy, independent legal system and freedom of speech, from the corrupt economic free-for-all and repressive rule that characterises the communist-run mainland.
Reunification in 1997 after 155 years as a British colony was supposed to draw Hong Kong close into the embrace of the motherland. But a University of Hong Kong survey in December revealed that the number of Hong Kong residents identifying themselves as Chinese had sunk to a 12-year low.
