Chief executive hopefuls Henry Tang Ying-yen and Leung Chun-ying traded blows yesterday over the best way to manage the influx of mainland women coming to the city to give birth.
A day after business and entertainment heavyweights turned out in force at a campaign rally for Tang, the former chief secretary countered Leung's suggestion that the authorities stem the tide of pregnant mainland women by having immigration officers block the women at border checkpoints.
Tang did not respond directly to the idea but said a better way to deal with the issue could be to prevent all pregnant mainland women not married to locals from giving birth in public hospitals and channelling them to private medical facilities.
The government has capped the number of maternity beds for non-local mothers in public and private hospitals at 34,400 next year. Tang said the government could consider scrapping the quota for public hospitals and continuing to offer a limited number of places in private centres.
At the centre of the maternity issue is the right of abode granted to all children born in the city - a big incentive for mainland women to come to Hong Kong to give birth. In response to a radio talkback show caller who asked if the government could design a system to deny the right of abode to the Hong Kong-born children of mainland mothers, Tang said that this could be done only by amending the Basic Law or seeking an interpretation from the National People's Congress Standing Committee.
'Each choice presents difficulties to overcome. I believe if we sought an interpretation of the Basic Law, it would deal a blow to the rule of law of Hong Kong,' he said after the show, before heading to Lok Fu and Central to hand out leaflets promoting his platform. 'On the other hand, it would also be difficult to amend the Basic Law. So I think at this stage, we should use the quota system instead.'