Famously so. That’s why you were much better of living in Hong Kong in 1949 than the bulk of mainland China. The colony becomes the vehicle for exporting wealth from the interior.
Quite a few HK liberals will protest Chinese rule by waving British (and American) flags. And a small but vocal faction even periodically demand that Hong Kong be returned to the UK.
Incidentally, the economy of Hong Kong has significantly lagged the rest of the Chinese mainland, in no small part because it has lost its position as an exclusive export hub to the wealthy capitalist countries. This has further increased the ahem economic anxiety of Hong Kong natives and fueled waves of protest (most notably the 2019 Umbrella Protests). Without its colonial status, Hong Kong is just another Chinese port city. Still disproportionately wealthy, but no longer this extravagantly rich financialized bottleneck.
For that kind of privilege, you need to move to Singapore.
A colonizer always takes good care of its colony?
Famously so. That’s why you were much better of living in Hong Kong in 1949 than the bulk of mainland China. The colony becomes the vehicle for exporting wealth from the interior.
Quite a few HK liberals will protest Chinese rule by waving British (and American) flags. And a small but vocal faction even periodically demand that Hong Kong be returned to the UK.
Incidentally, the economy of Hong Kong has significantly lagged the rest of the Chinese mainland, in no small part because it has lost its position as an exclusive export hub to the wealthy capitalist countries. This has further increased the ahem economic anxiety of Hong Kong natives and fueled waves of protest (most notably the 2019 Umbrella Protests). Without its colonial status, Hong Kong is just another Chinese port city. Still disproportionately wealthy, but no longer this extravagantly rich financialized bottleneck.
For that kind of privilege, you need to move to Singapore.
I mean easy to see why HK people would prefer the former status to the current.