USA TODAY International Edition
Hong Kong mired in birthing controversy
Tensions rise as pregnant women cross border to tap city’s benefits and escape China’s one- child rule
Many residents say mainland Chinese who flock to the city to give birth are “stealing” their public resources,
HONG KONG — The full- page newspaper ad depicts a giant locust towering over the Hong Kong skyline, with the words: “Do you want Hong Kong to spend 1 million ( Hong Kong) dollars every 18 minutes to raise the children born to mainland parents?”
The ad denouncing the increasing numbers of women from the rest of China giving birth in Hong Kong hospitals is the latest sign of tension between China proper and the people of this semiautonomous city- state that came under Chinese sovereignty 15 years ago.
Hong Kong residents have long complained that Chinese “mainlanders” are driving up the price of real estate, clothing and food in the city. Growing competition for the city’s limited medical resources is widening a rift between residents of China’s “one country, two systems,” and arousing the concern of mainland officials.
Tensions are “the worst since the hand- over,” says Law Yuk Kai, director of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor.
A financial capital of Asia, Hong Kong came under Chinese control in 1997 after the United Kingdom ceded its colony of more than 150 years. Concerned for the freedoms of the residents, Britain worked out a deal with China’s Communist leaders in which Hong Kong was made a “special administrative region” that retained Western- style rights of free speech and press.
Disputes arise often. At annual rallies to mark the 1997 handover, there are complaints of an erosion of democratic rights. And many are unhappy with the heavy role Beijing plays in electing Hong Kong’s chief executive.
A University of Hong Kong poll in December found the percentage of city residents identifying themselves as Chinese citizens had dropped to a 12- year low, while those calling themselves Hong Kong residents had reached a 10- year high.
Some recent incidents have strained relations. In January, hundreds of Hong Kongers protested at a Dolce & Gabbana store after the retailer barred locals from taking photos but appeared to allow mainlanders to do so. In Youtube videos, Hong Kong residents are seen lashing out at mainlanders for eating on the subway. In response, a Peking University professor in Beijing, Kong Qingdong, disparaged Hong Kong residents in a webcast as “dogs of British imperialists.”
One of the biggest controversies is the tide of pregnant mainlanders flooding city hospitals to get around China’s one- child policy, or to give their children access to the health and educational benefits that come with Hong Kong citizenship. Last year, about 41,000 mainlanders gave birth in Hong Kong hospitals, accounting for nearly half of total births in the city.
Mainlanders are seen as “stealing away things meant for people in Hong Kong,” says Chi Kwong Law, an associate professor of social work at the University of Hong Kong.
Serena Eze, 36, a Hong Kong mother of two, tried to book a private hospital bed last year when she was nine weeks pregnant. She was told it was too late because mainlanders had reserved beds when they were four weeks pregnant. “We never have priority,” says Eze, a founder of Hong Kong Mama, which opposes the mainlander influx. “They have to stop giving citizenship to ( mainland) babies.”
The Hong Kong government has limited the number of mainlanders who can give birth in the city to 34,000 in 2012. Even so, doctors say mainlanders may bypass the quota by arriving at emergency rooms when they’re in labor rather than making arrangements ahead of time.
Bill Chan, chief of service at United Christian’s pediatrics department, says a woman arrived with convulsions from untreated high blood pressure and gave birth to a boy who was two months premature. The woman came to Hong Kong from the mainland and didn’t get adequate prenatal care because she feared doctors would find out she planned to deliver in an emergency room, Chan says.
“They come here to get residency for their babies, but what’s the point if the babies are not healthy?” Chan says.
Authorities in Guangdong province, in southern China, are warning mainlanders they could be fined for violating China’s one- child policy, even if they give birth in Hong Kong, according to the China Daily, a staterun newspaper.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government is tightening up its borders and cracking down on “birth agents” shuttling mainland women into the city to give birth. In mid- February, a Hong Kong judge sentenced a mainlander who brought pregnant women into Hong Kong to 10 months in prison.
Whether the government’s measures will be enough to prevent Hong Kong hospitals from being overwhelmed remains to be seen, says Cheung Tak Hong, a member of the Hong Kong Obstetric Services Concern Group.
“We are not against the mainland Chinese, but we are against their behavior,” Eze says. “They’re very selfish, they don’t have any hygiene, and they’re not considerate.”
On Weibo, China’s microblogging site, a poster named “Devil Capital Strategy” advises mainlanders to respond to the criticism by keeping themselves and their money away from Hong Kong. “If we keep on doing this for three months, they will beg the ‘ locust’ to come back,” the poster writes.