Paying for express rail tickets in renminbi at West Kowloon would only deepen mainlandisation fears

Michael Chugani is aghast that the Hong Kong transport secretary is open to using renminbi as the currency for high-speed railway tickets, as this would only play into the hands of those fanning fears over the joint immigration checkpoint

Reading Time:3 minutes

Hong Kong’s Transport and Housing Secretary Frank Chan Fan (second right) answers a media query, while looking on are (from left) Constitutional and Mainland Affairs chief Patrick Nip Tak-kuen; Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Security minister John Lee Ka-chiu, at Tamar on November 18. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 2:13pm, 29 Nov 2017Updated: 7:25pm, 29 Nov 2017

Are you serious, Mr Secretary? Do you really want to pursue the folly of using China’s renminbi as the currency to buy express rail tickets in Hong Kong? Unthinkable as it may be for many Hongkongers, that’s exactly what Transport and Housing Secretary Frank Chan Fan said two weeks ago.

These were his exact words at a press conference about the railway’s logistics: “How about the kind of currency that we are [to be] using? Should it be the Hong Kong dollar or should it be renminbi?”

I can think of only two reasons for Chan’s astounding remark: he wasn’t thinking straight, or he is unfamiliar with the word “mainlandisation”.

Either way, it again proves that our officials have an inborn knack to shoot themselves in the foot.

Mainlandisation is anathema to many Hong Kong people. But it’s an inevitability that’s already eating away at the feel and culture of our city. Mainland developers have humbled local property tycoons in snapping up land. Mandarin has become a fixture in our finance sector. Even Hong Kong icon Cathay Pacific has lost its blue-chip status to a mainland firm on the Hang Seng Index.

Great Wall emerges as second-biggest partner among buyers of Link Reit’s 17 shopping malls

Do we want to hasten the process by requiring Hongkongers to pay in renminbi for express rail tickets at West Kowloon?