Hong Kong ‘just another Chinese city’? It should be so lucky

Some Hongkongers love saying that more influence from Beijing will turn Hong Kong into “just another” Chinese or “just an ordinary city” in China, as does, for example, your correspondent Lo Wai Kong (“The choice is clear for Hong Kong: be a unique Chinese city or just another one”, December 16). But I wonder which Chinese cities they are referring to: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen? These cities are extremely dynamic and change on a daily basis. They were completely different five years ago and will be much changed in five years. So coining the concept of “just another city in China” may be comforting, but it is rubbish.

Hong Kong, in contrast, is rather stagnant. Exceptional maybe, but not dynamic. With the dizzying speed of change, it is hard to envisage what cities in China will look like in 2047. How Hong Kong will look is much easier to predict.

Josephine Bersee, Mid-Levels