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  • In Hong Kong, five anti-China, pro-independence candidates won seats in the Legislative Council.

  • But the Chinese government warned against any promotion of independence, threatening

  • to impose punishment.

  • Today, animosity between Mainland Chinese citizens and Hong Kong citizens has led to

  • outright violence and protests.

  • So we wanted to know, what exactly is the nature of this unique and complicated relationship?

  • Well, The officially named Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic

  • of China is not an independent country, but modern day Hong Kong was actually born out

  • the fall of the British Empire.

  • From about the mid-1800s Hong Kong was a British occupied colony, stemming from the spoils

  • of the Treaty of Nanking after the First Opium War.

  • But in 1997, following years of Sino-British negotiations, the British left Hong Kong,

  • ceding it to China, but under a new form of autonomy calledone country, two systems”.

  • Essentially, this was a compromise between Hong Kong wanting to be fully autonomous and

  • sovereign, and China wanting to exert control of the neighboring territory.

  • Although the two are indeed one country - The People’s Republic of China - Hong Kong is

  • relatively autonomous.

  • It has its own government, with independent executive, judicial, and legislative branches,

  • and pretty much everything else a sovereign country could have: a legal system, law enforcement,

  • immigration policy, even its own currency - the Hong Kong dollar, also called a “Hongky”.

  • But the autonomous region is wholly dependent on China for its military, which has a specific

  • Hong Kong military division, and in return, Hong Kong cedes a level of control to the

  • Chinese government.

  • This relatively vague level of control has been uneasy for many Hong Kong residents,

  • who are culturally and politically separate from Mainland China, and the two groups have

  • repeatedly clashed over their differences.

  • A 2014 survey found that more than three times the number of residents considered themselves

  • to be purely Hongkongers, as opposed to purely Chinese.

  • A growing stereotype against people from Mainland China is that they are rude or impolite, while

  • those from the Mainland see Hong Kong residents as spoiled and ungrateful.

  • Many in Hong Kong believe that the Mainland has undue influence within the region.

  • One example led to widespread protests in 2014, when China’s Communist Party attempted

  • to implement reforms that would effectively pre-screen candidates in Hong Kong’s elections.

  • As many as 100,000 protesters marched in the streets of Hong Kong, and the reforms were

  • eventually rejected the following year.

  • A poll from 2016 found that roughly 17% of Hongkongers support independence by 2050,

  • although among those aged 15-24, roughly 40% supported independence.

  • Mainland China and Hong Kong have different histories, cultures, and demographics, yet

  • they also hold strong trade and travel relationships.

  • This crossover has been ripe for cultural clashes, but the real distaste between the

  • two is political.

  • What each side owes the other, and how much control China seeks to exert on Hong Kong

  • are delicate issues with no clear answers.

  • As they struggle to find a middle ground, there is no question that more disagreements

  • and protests hang on the horizon.

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In Hong Kong, five anti-China, pro-independence candidates won seats in the Legislative Council.

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