2012 Kong Qingdong incident
In January 2012, Peking University professor Kong Qingdong made televised remarks suggesting that many Hongkongers were disloyal to China and still harboured a colonial mentality.
Kong Qingdong called Hongkongers "dogs" in response to an online video posted about a mainland Chinese child eating on the subway, which is prohibited by MTR regulations.
[4] This is the highest ratio of those who consider themselves primarily as "Hong Kong people" (Chinese: 香港人) since the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997.
[6] Chung rejected the charges of bias and released a statement that the "Cultural Revolution-style curses and defamations are not conducive to the building of Chinese national identity among Hong Kong people".
[3] Professor Dixon Sing (Chinese: 成名) of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was also targeted by pro-Beijing media.
But the real issue, some suspect, may have his support for the 2010 "Five Constituencies Referendum," a set of by-elections deliberately triggered by pan-democrat politicians intended to showcase the Hong Kong public's endorsement of democratic reforms in the territory.
This ruling led to a sharp rise in the number of Mainland Chinese mothers coming to Hong Kong to give birth.
Nurses in the region have accused the territory's government of incompetence, and lobbied for Hong Kong residents to be prioritised over non-locals.
[8] In 2012, the Hong Kong government reduced the quota for the number of Mainland Chinese women allowed to give birth in public hospitals.
[10] Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced a four-point plan to hold back the wave of Mainland Chinese 'birth tourists.
It garnered a wide range of responses, of which the most notable came from Kong Qingdong, a professor at Peking University known for his vulgar commentary of political and social issues as well as his firebrand Chinese nationalism.
[19] Petitions for expelling Kong from Peking University, which was previously called for when he rejected an interview with the liberal Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly with a slew of profanities, was also renewed.
[29] The advertisement was published on Wednesday 1 February 2012[30] and featured a giant locust overlooking the city skyline of Hong Kong.
"[29] The advertisement also employs the derogative term "double illegitimacy" (雙非),[31] which refers to residents of Hong Kong with both parents of illegal status within the territory.
Protesters also argued against Hong Kong Basic Law Article 24, although Rita Fan have already said these newborns do not qualify for right of abode.
[30] Hong Kong protesters also launched anti-Mainland Chinese groups on Facebook that reached high popularity,[31] prompting local media to refer to it as an "Anti-Locusts campaign".
[33] The Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission expressed concern over the full-page advertisement; Chairman Lam Woon-kwong said that vilifying remarks will heighten social tension and hostility and called for tolerance and rational debate.
"[12] A similarly duplicate ad by Shanghai grassroots reused the same picture posted from the HK golden forum, but the words were changed.
There were limited resources available to begin with, now these HK citizens have to compete with Mainland Chinese for education, scholarships and jobs post study.
"[39] On 10 March 2012, a press conference on the issue of Mainland Chinese "birth tourism" Kong was held by Guangdong governor Zhu Xiaodan.
Instead the host let reporter Lu Hong-chao from Hong Kong Commercial Daily (owned by the Mainland-Chinese Shenzhen Press Group) ask the last question.
Lu, who thought that Cheng made the comment, reportedly started the fight, pushing her and pulling her journalist pass from her chest.
When Lu Hong-chao attempted to leave, Cheng Sze-ting, Chan Miu-ling and other Hong Kong reporters surrounded him and requested an apology.
