Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Non-Fiction 2020complete | Page 64
Upstream or Downstream? More Questions
than Answers for China's Great Bay Area
Harrow International School Hong Kong, Wang, Jade - 13
The Pearl River Delta has captured the interest and imagination of many historians and artists in
the past. This famous estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea, has once again
captured our attention and awareness. Not just whether its water is flowing upstream or downstream but
what future lies for the cities in the Pearl River Delta.
The Greater Bay Area Initiative is China's national drive to turn nine cities and two special
administrative regions of the Pearl River Delta into an economic powerhouse. The eleven metropolia shall
serve as the core of a megalopolis for the region's political, economic, communications, infrastructure, and
urban development. The initiative is not a new invention of sorts. There are more prominent megalopolises
in the world, such as "BosWash" or "So-Cal" in the United States and may have inspired China's initiative
in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The main objective is to improve and innovate
the mechanisms of cooperation, complementarian and relationship to develop the cities of Hong Kong,
Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing
into an integrated Greater Bay Area.
Think of it like a present-day Industrial Revolution where each area has a different goal according
to their characteristics. Hong Kong, for example, with its status as international, financial, transportation and
trade centre, will further strengthen its status as a global offshore business hub and an international asset
management centre. Macao, on the other hand, shall take forward its development as a global tourism and
leisure centre and foster the appropriately diversified and sustainable development of the economy of
Macao.
However, China's Greater Bay Area Initiative also raise more questions than answers. Will there be
true integration amidst income and wealth inequality? What will happen when people from a high Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) per capita city like Hong Kong and Macao live and work with those from a low
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita city like Zhaoging and Jiangmen? Will the integration cause
massive migration to enjoy the benefits of "richer" cities like Hong Kong and Macau, forcing existing
residents to "share" their infrastructure and other social benefits with migrants? Further, as there are different
tax structures of the cities in the Greater Bay area, will the initiative give businesses more options to avoid
paying tax? When that happens, will this force the government to alter their tax systems just to solve this
problem and do so at the expense of upsetting the existing way of doing business in that city?
As a citizen of Hong Kong, we must regard the initiative, not as a heedless observer but an attuned
stakeholder. The Greater Bay Area may have unique perspectives and ambitions to become a world leader in
manufacturing, innovation, shipping, trade and finance by 2030. It is buoyed by potentials. Nevertheless,
just like a river in a mountain or a hill, the fast running water cuts away at the rocks. Although the Greater
Bay Area Initiative has many benefits for all the regions, there is one problem: cultural and political
diversities of each region. A higher number of Hongkongers remain deeply divided about the Greater Bay
Area plan. Many feel multi-billion-dollar infrastructural projects like the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau
mega bridge and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link threaten the city's freedoms, as
China's embrace grows tighter and tighter. Hong Kong has a democracy and its own legal and political
system under the "one country, two systems" arrangement. This high degree of autonomy was promised
Hong Kong until 2047. Hongkongers, nevertheless, fear the city is slowly losing its unique identity. In 2017,
for example, Beijing decided it would pre-screen the candidates standing for Hong Kong's Chief Executive.
It sparked the Hong Kong democracy protest called "The Umbrella Movement", who say Beijing's decision