Hong Kong residents say the city they once knew is “dead”, with people born the territory leaving in droves, international companies closing their offices, and tourists from around the world staying away.
Since 2019, more than a fifth of US companies with regional headquarters there have left, Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department data show. International firms including the Wall Street Journal, Radio Free Asia, HSBC and JP Morgan have cut jobs or moved offices to Singapore.
Pro-democracy protests broke out Hong Kong in 2019 amid fears that China was tightening its grip, after Beijing proposed a bill to allow people accused of crimes to be extradited to the mainland.
The territory’s population numbers went into decline and the protests dealt a blow to tourism, exacerbated by the arrival of Covid-19.
The extradition bill was withdrawn, but in 2020 Beijing introduced a National Security Law critics said was designed to stifle protest and free speech.
In February 2023, the Hong Kong government launched a “Hello Hong Kong” global campaign aimed at luring tourists back and showcasing the city’s return to normality.
But the number of visitors to Hong Kong remained at only 52 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, with nearly 80 per cent of these visitors coming from mainland China.
The population figure has bounced back, but most arrivals hold visas designed exclusively for people from the mainland, Census and Statistics Department figures show.
This has raised fears among some residents over the increasing influence of the Chinese government on the special administrative region, which was returned by the UK to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” principle.
Lam*, 58, a researcher from Hong Kong, says a large number of Hongkongers have left the city and its government (HKSAR) wants to fill the gap with more mainland Chinese.
“I feel like I am not in Hong Kong and I am not happy about this,” she said. “It is fine if those new immigrants try to blend into our culture, but I dislike the fact that they always want to change Hong Kong, to change Hongkongers, even to confront us.
“If they want to change us, why are they bothered to come to Hong Kong?”
Owen*, 66, a retired architect, said: “Hong Kong is now a dead city since the introduction of the national security law, which has left it without a future.”
He says Hong Kong has fewer Hongkongers and is not as crowded as it was, with restaurants that used to have hour-long queues often empty. He has noticed more mainland Chinese people and hears more people speaking Putonghua (also known as Standard Mandarin).
Mary*, 23, an office worker, says she fears that Hong Kong will be “conquered” by people from mainland China and its culture altered for good.
“Hong Kong is now changing to a more Chinese lifestyle. They have ruined Hong Kong, making the city lose its characteristic,” she said.
But she added: “The fact is, I have no power to change the situation.”
The office worker said an increasing number of restaurants serve mainland Chinese food rather than the preferred local cuisine, and many retailers use the Chinese app Alipay, with promotions to attract more people using the payment method.
She is unhappy about being required to speak Putonghua in daily life when interacting with mainland Chinese, claiming Hongkongers are having to use an unfamiliar language, rather than a common language like English.
Melanie*, 24, a mainland Chinese master’s student studying film in Hong Kong, said she moved to the city because she loves its pop culture and feels it is offensive to say migrants from the mainland have taken over Hong Kong.
“We try to go native. Although some cities in China, such as Beijing and Shanghai, have a similar sense of superiority regarding identity, this is less common in the younger generation, who treat others equally regardless of their background.
“We do not receive any benefits for being mainland Chinese in Hong Kong, so why would the locals say we ‘conquered’ their city?”
Gigi*, a mainland Chinese educator who has lived in Hong Kong since 1996, acknowledges that there are increasing numbers of mainland Chinese moving to the city but added: “Not every mainland Chinese person is the same.”
She believes Hong Kong is an open-minded city willing to accept professionals from diverse backgrounds.
“You cannot say that Hongkongers discriminate against mainland Chinese; every country differentiates between locals and outsiders, and there may be resistance against those who are not from the same background,” she said.
“There is nothing we can do if Hong Kong is overwhelmed by mainland Chinese, as it is a small city with only a few million people, whereas there are over a billion mainland Chinese.”
Gigi believes Hong Kong’s government is trying to appease Chinese authorities, which leaves her feeling helpless.
She says she found more opportunities in Hong Kong professionally and personally, but everything has changed since the handover, and she hopes to leave someday, as it is no longer the city she first encountered.
Central District on Hong Kong Island is a busy place filled with nightlife. However, Larry*, 62, an IT worker, said the streets in there were deserted at Christmas, as was Lan Kwai Fong, a bar favoured by Westerners and usually packed with tourists and locals.
The native Hongkonger has noticed more mainland Chinese young professionals on the business hub of Hong Kong Island, fewer foreigners and more families speaking Putonghua.
Larry said: “It is no longer the place I am familiar with; it has become a strange place. I have no choice but to get to know and adapt to it anew.
“The way of life and the social atmosphere that I once knew are already things of the past; they no longer exist.”
He said the city had lost a many of its young, Cantonese-speaking adults, “as if a whole social stratum has suddenly disappeared”.
“Yesterday’s Hong Kong is dead, and today’s Hong Kong is one of the cities in China,” he continued, questioning whether Hong Kong is still an international city.
Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, said on the 27th anniversary of the handover to China in July that the “one country, two systems” principle had ensured the city remained internationally competitive.
He said the national security law had provided room for economic growth and consolidated the city’s status as an international financial centre, seeing the territory transition from “stability to prosperity”.
John Burns, emeritus professor of politics at the University of Hong Kong, argues that Hong Kong is not stable because many politically active citizens have been shut out of the process.
He said: “Some of these citizens have left Hong Kong, and some are in jail.
“This is an indication that we have stability on the surface only because these other opinions, these other views are being repressed.
“Stability is where the vast majority of people in Hong Kong feel that they can participate, that our government is accountable, and that they trust the government.
“We don’t have demonstrations, we don’t have protests, we don’t have any formal outward signs of organised discontent and dissent. To me, that’s not stability.”
Thomas Benson, research and policy adviser at UK-based human rights NGO Hong Kong Watch, said the government had “taken an axe to a lot of what has made Hong Kong a special city”, including many “basic freedoms and rights that are guaranteed to Hongkongers”.
“Even if prosperity was the outcome of these new laws and the changing political circumstances in Hong Kong, I don’t think that would be a justification,” he said.
Since 2019, Hong Kong’s stock market has been in decline. Mr Benson said the city grew its reputation as a freewheeling hub of international finance and commerce before the security laws were introduced.
“I fundamentally reject the framing of stability to prosperity. I don’t think that we see any evidence that prosperity has been achieved [and] ‘stability’ is a complete misnomer for the current state of Hong Kong.”
He thinks Hong Kong will maintain to some degree its status as an international hub while losing much of what made it special over time, including the rule of law and judicial independence upon which it built that reputation.
He said: “Hong Kong will become increasingly enmeshed with mainland China, which is also a stated policy aim of increased integration with Shenzhen and the rest of the greater Pearl Bay area.”
In 2019, trust in the HKSAR dropped to a 30-year low of 25.6 per cent, according to Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPOI) data. As more Hongkongers leave, the government is now regaining trust, the figures show.
Another HKPOI survery shows that indicators including freedom of speech, freedom of procession and demonstration, and freedom of the press and publication have all dropped and failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
*Names changed to protect identities
