Jew World Order

It should have been a straightforward process, controlled by the cosy clique of 1,200 elite business figures and Beijing loyalists who are the only Hong Kong residents allowed to vote. Instead, a series of scandals has left Henry Tang, Beijing’s preferred candidate, floundering as his approval ratings in opinion polls plummet.

With his rival and fellow member of the pro-Beijing camp, CY Leung, also facing accusations of corruption, more and more Hong Kongers are openly wondering how exactly they have benefited from being reunited with the mainland.

Uncouth mainland tourists who spit, fail to queue in orderly lines and eat messily on the subway have long been resented by locals, who in turn are seen as British-trained snobs by mainlanders.

When a mobile phone video clip of some Hong Kong commuters upbraiding a group of mainlanders for dropping noodles on the subway went “viral” on the internet recently, it prompted a Chinese university professor to lambast Hong Kongers as “bastards, thieves and dogs of British imperialists”.

But the mainlanders who arouse by far the most ire are the women like Shu Yan, the so-called “birth tourists” who come to Hong Kong solely to have their children. They do so because of a 2001 ruling by the territory’s highest court which gives all babies born in Hong Kong the right to residency and a Hong Kong passport.

Those benefits were well worth the HK$150,000 (£12,200) it cost Shu Yan and her husband to have their son in a private hospital. “I wanted to have him in Hong Kong because he gets to be a Hong Kong resident and he’ll have a passport that will make it easier for him to travel abroad,” she said.

Three-quarters of the 44,000 mainland women who gave birth in Hong Kong last year did so in private clinics, making it difficult for locals to find a bed even if they are prepared to pay.

The remainder have their babies in the city’s over-stretched public hospitals. In January, the local government bowed to public anger over the issue, cutting the quota of mainland women allowed to do so by almost two-thirds to 3,400. But more than 1,200 mainland women in 2011 did not bother to book any hospital.

They waited across the border until they went into labour, before jumping in a taxi and heading into Hong Kong to give birth at the nearest AE department.

“I want my child to go to school in Hong Kong because the education system here is better than in China,” said Mrs Shi, 31, a heavily-pregnant mainlander sitting in the obstetrics deparment at the Baptist Hospital in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district. “I know Hong Kong people are upset about people from the mainland coming here to use the hospitals, but it is legal so I don’t see why it is a problem.”

Most Hong Kong women, though, disagree. Ida Sze, a pregnant 32-year-old jewellery buyer who has had to wait four months to see a doctor, is one of them. “I think the government needs to find a way to solve this problem,” she said. “It doesn’t just affect mothers, it affects the education system because there aren’t enough school places and it puts the whole welfare system under strain.”

The failure of Hong Kong’s ruling body, the Legislative Council, to resolve the crisis satisfactorily has only added to the sense of disillusionment with the mainland.

Under what is known as the “one country, two systems” model, Hong Kong is supposed to enjoy a high degree of autonomy in the way it governs itself. Yet the head of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau office in Beijing stated last week that amending the ruling that gives the right of abode to anyone born in Hong Kong is “impractical”.

It is a clear indication that China will not allow Hong Kong to change its laws to stop the “birth tourists”.

Equally unconvincing is the “election” to decide who will be the next chief executive. Hong Kong’s leader until 2017 will be chosen by a 1,200-strong electoral college, most of whom have ties to Beijing, a way of ensuring that China’s ruling communist party (CCP) plays the decisive role in who gets elected.

Now, the scandals surrounding the two main candidates are threatening to derail Beijing’s carefully-laid plans and risk leaving Hong Kong with a lame duck leader for the next five years.

Mr Tang’s approval ratings in opinion polls is hovering around 20 per cent, a result of claims that he had extra-marital affairs and also built an illegal basement in his home for a wine cellar.

CY Leung, meanwhile, is under fire for repeatedly voting for an entry in a design competition for a public building backed by his own property company, and over reports that some of his supporters have links to Triads.

“Beijing’s plans have been disturbed and they are panicking,” said Albert Ho Chun-yan, the chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party and the third candidate for the chief executive post.

While corruption corruption among public officials is endemic on the mainland, it remains a rarity in Hong Kong, so the scandals have made the election the city’s main talking point, even if hardly anyone can vote in it.

The poll remains important because of Hong Kong’s status as a global financial capital, a position which has also prevented Beijing from imposing the same kind of repressive rule that it does on the mainland.

Indeed at first glance, there are few signs that Hong Kong has changed dramatically in the 15 years since it ceased to be a British colony. Cars drive on the left down streets still named after colonial administrators and English remains widely spoken, while British bankers and corporate lawyers continue to crowd out the bars and clubs of Hong Kong Island just as they did before 1997.

“Hong Kong people have a strong desire to uphold our core values, our fundamental freedoms,” said Mr Ho. “We treasure our free press and people’s right to participate in public affairs; there are thousands of protests each year. And Hong Kong people are very proud of our judiciary and the professionalism and impartiality of our civil service.”

Ordinary Hong Kongers, though, are no longer prospering. An influx of money from the mainland’s new rich is blamed for keeping property prices, among the highest in the world, far beyond the reach of most locals. And according to a report this month from Hong Kong’s Council of Social Services, the gap between the rich and poor is growing wider, further fuelling dissatisfaction with China.

That gulf, though, is not yet as yawning as the cultural one that continues to divide Hong Kong from the mainland. “We are all Chinese but we are very different from mainlanders,” said Mrs Sze. “I think mainland people will change in the future and become more like us. But it will take time.”