China officials considered Hong Kong travel alert over mainland visitor protests

It crossed the minds of mainland officials to issue a travel alert against Hong Kong in the wake of local protests that targeted visitors from across the border, a Beijing loyalist revealed yesterday.

Executive councillor Cheng Yiu-tong said officials had once sought his opinion on whether the National Tourism Administration should warn mainlanders travelling to Hong Kong of a growing anti-mainland sentiment in the city.

"I told them never to do this to Hong Kong," Cheng, a veteran Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress, told a Commercial Radio programme.

"Not only would the retail and hotel industries suffer, but the entire working class would, too." He hinted that the officials who contacted him were not high ranking, but said it was possible that relevant mainland bureaus, or even the central leadership, shared the same thought.

Antagonism towards mainlanders has flared up this year, after the government in mid-January predicted 70 million arrivals in 2017. Of the roughly 54.3 million visitors last year, 70 per cent were from the mainland.

The news stoked fears resources would be overwhelmed. The more radical protesters told Putonghua-speaking shoppers in Tsim Sha Tsui to leave the city, attracting condemnation from top officials, including Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.