City expands northwards into Shenzhen

Lok Ma Chau – From the hill in northernmost Hong Kong where Jasper Law stood, the border with China was obvious – a narrow river dividing farmlands and fish ponds from the gleaming skyscrapers of megacity Shenzhen.

But the territory is fast being subsumed into Beijing’s blueprint for southern China. And as the border is chipped away, the lack of public consultation has done little to ease the discomfort some Hong Kongers feel about living on the mainland’s doorstep.

“In the 25 years since the handover, the border has become more and more blurry,” said Law, a pro-democracy politician from the border area.

The softening boundary has preoccupied many Hong Kongers. And it was one of the catalysts for the huge democracy protests in the finance hub three years ago, a movement initially triggered by an attempt to allow extraditions to China’s mainland. Beijing’s subsequent crackdown has only sped up Hong Kong’s absorption.

The integration of Hong Kong’s population and economy with mainland China has been under way for decades. Between 1997 and 2021, more than 1.1 million people migrated from China via a limited-quota “one-way permit” scheme, almost a seventh of Hong Kong’s current population. Mandarin was pushed in schools, sparking resentment among those who felt the city’s Cantonese culture was being eroded.

Hong Kong’s borders were also tweaked, most notably in 2010 with an expansion of China’s high-speed rail into the city. Part of the terminus in Hong Kong came under Chinese jurisdiction, so the mainland’s Communist Party-controlled legal system applied there.

Beijing’s imposition of a sweeping national security law to curb dissent following the 2019 protests has further eroded the legal firewall between Hong Kong and the mainland.

Under the law, imposed by Beijing directly, the mainland’s security agents can operate freely in Hong Kong, immune from the city’s laws. Beijing says it can now also try the most serious security offences in mainland China.

Hong Kong’s government now plans to transform the border area by placing integration with Shenzhen at the heart of economic development in the city’s northern areas, shifting focus away from Victoria Harbour.