Beijing ‘confuses Hong Kong localism with being anti-China’
City University researchers say top-down demands for patriotism by central government could push more Hongkongers to reject national identity
Researchers at City University have warned that Hongkongers are being pushed into rejecting their national identity because the local and Beijing governments are “misdiagnosing” the problem by equating localism with being unpatriotic.
Citing their latest study, a team of political scientists questioned the common conception that a rise in localism was making people feel “less Chinese” and “more Hongkonger”.
The researchers concluded it was Hongkongers’ mistrust in the Beijing government, rather than a lack of broader Chinese identity, that prompted them to resist the motherland.
Why do young Hongkongers still dislike mainland China?
At a seminar on Sunday, Wang Zhimin, the head of Beijing’s liaison office in the city, identified the lack of national security legislation in Hong Kong as a “major weakness”.
However, research leader Professor Linda Li Che-lan said: “There seems to be a common prejudice in the policy circles that local and national identities are in a zero-sum relationship.