Political Disturbance in Hong Kong Makes Citizens Migrate to Taiwan

April 05, 2018

Things aren’t great between Hong Kong Beijing, and scared residents are moving to a safer Taiwan, Hong Kong’s neighbor. Hong Kong has been under China’s rule for almost two decades now and is a major financial hub for the Asian country. According to a Taipei news site, Hong Kong citizens migrate to Taiwan when there is political disturbance with China.

Until December 2016, 71,263 inhabitants from Macau and Hong Kong were giving Taiwanese residency. On January 1, 2018, hundreds of citizens of Hong Kong protested against Beijing. Later in the same month, Hong Kong stopped a pro-democracy candidate from running in the elections. In return, China arrested a Hong Kong bookseller who has Swedish citizenship. Raymond Wu, managing director, political risk consultancy e-telligence from Taipei, believes that the number of immigrants will continue to rise.

Political Disturbance in Hong Kong Makes Citizens Migrate to Taiwan

The count is increasing for the past few years, and it will continue to increase amidst the political drama. Hong Kong’s youth is against Beijing’s role in the territory’s legislative elections. Some are against the fact that citizens of mainland China are permitted to work and live in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s history

Hong Kong was under British rule for 150 years until China took over in 1997. It was democratized in the 1980s. For long, China has tried to make Hong Kong a part of its country but decades of political leaders were successful in resisting it. Even the citizens prefer autonomy.

Chu Kang-ming is a retired professor from Hong Kong who currently lives in Taiwan. According to him whenever there is uncertainty in Hong Kong, people leave the territory because Taiwan has a stronger freedom of speech. After studying in Taiwan, students from Hong Kong realize that the country is free and decide to stay back, making them one of the largest groups of immigrants in Taiwan.