Day 66 Frictions between Hongkong and mainland

Frictions between Hongkong and mainland

On 15th February, a group of HonKong protesters siege the tourists from China mainland in the shopping centre. They claimed that they are against the smuggler from the mainland and will protect HongKong’s people’s welfare. So they abused those tourist and waved the slogan such as ‘ smuggler get out of Hongkong’ ‘ Chinese go back to China’. Once the news was released, most of the mainlanders were fuming. Actually, this is the second incident since the protest in the central HongKong. Hence what is the main reason behind the HongKong society’s destabilization recently?

Because of the Chinese government’s beneficial policies towards Hongkong, plenty of mainland smugglers entered the market. They acted as an agent who purchased goods corresponding to the demands in their online store, and brought them back to the mainland. The convenient passage between HongKong and Shenzhen allowed them to travel at trivial costs. In addition, the Hongkong’s retailers adjusted their stock according to these smuggler’s requirement, due to they are the major group of consumer. As a consequence, Hongkong people found out it was getting harder to acquire their daily products. For instance, the milk powders were facing drastic shortage, because the questionable food safety in mainland China. Tus the local government had to implement a law to prohibit travellers from purchasing too much milk powders. On the other hand, the customs applied scrutiny over the passengers came back to Hongkong, in order to against the smuggling activities. However, the trading activities across Hongkong and the mainlands also propelled the Hongkong’s economical prosperity. The store owners in Hongkong advocate for those smugglers, since they contributed more than 50% of their sales. In fact, most daily products were still sufficiently available for the local people, since the smugglers were only interested in imported goods. Although some Hongkong people contended that travellers caused traffic congestions, it did not make any sense because Hongkong’s transportation system sucks anyway. 

So what are these so called ‘welfare and democracy fighters’ real target? Suggested by the small proportion of them, I think they are some people who were paid by ulterior groups. They did not even dare to show their true identity and hide their face behind masks. To be honest, is that kind of stuff real protesters will do if they want to represent their thoughts and values? And what distinguish their actions from riot when they became the impediment of innocent tourists’ personal freedom? In my opinion, Chinese government should take harsh action to punish these bastards and make them pay.