The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is implementing policies aimed at absorbing Hong Kong professionals into its “Greater Bay Area” plan, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest evaluation report on Hong Kong’s status.
Since the introduction of the National Security Law in the territory in 2020, the council is required to submit quarterly reports to the legislature on Hong Kong’s status as a semi-autonomous region and Taiwan’s humanitarian efforts to assist Hong Kong residents.
Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Beijing aims to transform the coastal region along the Pearl River Delta into a “high-tech megalopolis to rival California’s Silicon Valley,” linking Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, Bloomberg wrote on Feb. 19, 2019.
Photo: Bloomberg
The council said that Beijing had been using incentives to strengthen absorption and control of Hong Kong talent into the “common market” of the Greater Bay Area.
Beijing was implementing numerous measures to more closely integrate Hong Kong and Macau with mainland China, it added.
Since 2020, foreign investment in Hong Kong has dropped 3.1 percent, from 1,504 businesses to 1,457, the report said, adding.
The number of US businesses investing in the territory fell from 282 to 254 — the largest drop since 2003.
Over the same period, mainland Chinese investment grew 6 percent annually, with 252 companies moving into the territory, the report said.
Legislation introduced by Beijing in December last year requires law students in Macau and Hong Kong to study “Xi Jinping thought” as part of the bar exam, it said.
‘POLITICAL THRESHOLD’
“Similar political thresholds might be set for other professions in the future,” a source said. “The Hong Kong Government echoes CCP policy on integration.”
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) has said that suburban residential areas would be built in the northern and northwestern areas of Hong Kong’s New Territories over the next two decades, linking the territory and Shenzhen at seven ports of entry, the source said.
“The exodus of foreign capital from Hong Kong is partially a reflection of the global economy, but a large part of it is due to political factors,” the source said. “Since October last year, there have been a spate of rulings, with people each being imprisoned for years for allegedly breaching the National Security Law.”
Citing the arrest and imprisonment last year of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英), the source said that the CCP was targeting outspoken members of the media and now requires all those hired at Hong Kong’s public schools to pass the Basic Law test.
More than 90 percent of the territory’s schools have established groups to coordinate work related to the National Security Law, the source said.
Following the “patriots only” Hong Kong Legislative Council election on Dec. 19 last year, more than two-thirds of council members are also CCP or Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference members, the source said.
“Socially controversial bills will now be easily passed in Hong Kong,” the source said. “President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in her New Year speech at the start of January said the human rights situation in Hong Kong is worrying.”
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