Strangers in Paradise
Hong Kongers are alarmed by a landmark ruling that could let in half a million kids from the mainland
By NISID HAJARI
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Paul Hu--Assignment Asia for TIME
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Chen Guanming has a big house in the booming southern Chinese city of Dongguan. He shares the two-story, 240-sq-m dwelling with his mother and brother. They have a balcony, even a small courtyard out back. But the house isn't big enough for Guanming's hopes. Over hamburgers and Cokes at the neighborhood McDonald's, the shy 12-year-old's eyes light up when he thinks of Hong Kong, where his father, a butcher, lives. "It's a prosperous and funky town with lots of interesting games," he says with certainty. There he would have a computer, a Sega video game and "a big, big house with lots of new friends." The hamburger he is wolfing down, he insists, would surely taste better in Hong Kong.
Alas, the one-time crown colony has no special sauce. Its McDonald's outlets are identical to Dongguan's, only more crowded and noisy. So is the home that awaits Guanming and his younger brother--a sterile and uninviting apartment measuring only 10-sq-m.
Yet that may be where he's headed, now that Hong Kong's highest court has ruled that any child born to a permanent resident has the right to live in the city. Beijing made ominous noises over last month's court decision, sparking fears that Hong Kong's legal independence could be in jeopardy (see box). But if the ruling holds, it means that Guanming--and perhaps half a million others like him--are set to become Hong Kong's newest citizens. The influx may be more than the territory can handle. Mainlanders like Guanming carry vastly overblown dreams that are certain to be disappointed. And in the current climate--the local economy shrank 7.1% in the third quarter last year--that has fueled an equally grand fear among Hong Kong natives: of invasion by an army of disaffected, unemployable youngsters. "Economically and socially, this is going to cause huge problems," says insurance executive Vicki Chan. "Everyone is contemplating chaos in Hong Kong."
With 6.8 million people crammed onto thin swathes of developed land, Hong Kong strictly manages the inflow of new residents. The court ruling could throw that effort into disarray. Officials had expected 66,000 mainland children to emigrate to Hong Kong between the July 1997 handover and this coming July. (About 43,000 have arrived so far.) Now that even illegitimate children are eligible, as well as those born before either of their parents became a resident, the number could exceed 500,000. Census-takers have spread out across Hong Kong and the nearby coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian to develop a reliable estimate of how many children qualify under the new rules.
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February 22, 1999
Test Case:
Beijing grumbles about the territory's courts
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