Beijing's top man in Hong Kong says people should not 'make a fuss' about conflicts between city residents and mainlanders, which are inevitable given the large number of tourists arriving.
The remarks by Dr Peng Qinghua, director of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, came a day after chief executive-elect Leung Chun-ying expressed reservations about the city's ability to accommodate more mainland travellers, dampening hopes that the individual visitor scheme would be expanded.
In an interview with Xinhua, Peng said 'conflicts and tensions' between Hong Kong and mainland people - which he did not specify - had their 'objective causes'.
'[People] need not make a fuss about them,' he said.
He cited the different legal systems, historical backgrounds, different stages of economic development and the impact of a huge number of visitors from the mainland as factors contributing to conflicts. He said respect was needed to minimise such conflicts.
'Given such a large-scale exchange of people, it is inevitable for there to be some clashes,' Xinhua quoted Peng as saying. 'These clashes and tensions are by no means the mainstream form of exchanges between the two places.'