Hong Kongs Conflict with Mainland China

Karl Marx saw the individuals in a society as competing for limited social, political, and economic resources, like education, housing, and food. The people of Hong Kong have not been exempted from these social conflicts; the constant rankles between Hong Kong and China have taken root today such that there is a need for an urgent solution that works for both the conflicting parties. The conflicts that mar Hong Kong can be traced back to 1997 when its sovereignty was handed over from the British to the Chinese government (Liam, Lui & Wong, 2012). In light of this, the paper looks to analyze whether the continued conflicts in Hong Kong are for the good of the society. To do so, the paper makes use of the social-conflict approach.

The policy at stake here was that of ‘anchor babies in Hong Kong’ (Liam, Lui & Wong, 2012). This policy led to constant rankles between the Hong Kongese and the Chinese of the mainland since it resulted in several pregnant women from the mainland preferring to give birth in Hong Kong. This way, their children benefitted from abode coverage, that is, a place of residence and also, access to education in Hong Kong. There were also stressed resources in terms of the healthcare given the fact that the number of women giving birth in the health facilities in Hong Kong was augmented by the mainland pregnant women who were gatecrashing. This conflict can be said to have been directed at serving the good of the society since it aimed at abolishing the policy that provided a gap for the mainland women to misuse Hong Kong’s resources.

These people would like to see the ‘one country, two systems’ principle enhanced in a bid to ensure the economic independence of Hong Kong (Li, 2015). They would like to see such activities as those of tourism contribute to the good of the economy of Hong Kong. Being part of the mainland cities would mean that the income generated from economic activities, like the aforementioned tourism, would go to the central government to be shared equally with other parts of the mainland. This conflicts with the view by the people of Hong Kong to benefit themselves from their economic activities. The constant rankles due to the risk of Hong Kong being part of the mainland cities can be said to have arisen from the desperate efforts of the people from the conflicting parties in competition for economic resources.

Some of the Hong Kongese consider it demeaning to consider themselves Chinese. There is a constant fight for a position of reputation between these two conflicting parties whereby each one of them considers itself above the other. This has led to various public sentiments that spark conflict between the Hong Kongese and the people of mainland China. One such incidence is that in which Kong Qingdong responded to a video of a child eating on a subway by referring to the Hong Kongese as ‘dog’ products of the British imperial government (Li, 2015). This alone resulted in the afflicted protesting against the professor’s comments hence further escalating the issue of conflicts between Hong Kong and mainland China. This presents a barrier to the efforts of the government to curb the issue of inequality.