Foreign Affairs Committee on May 5th, 2015

[Kwun Chung Law]

Yes.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

They still do.

Very quickly, I read recently about Chinese mainlanders coming to Hong Kong to make large purchases because either there were more products available or they were at a lower cost and that this had created some tension. Can you comment on that very briefly? Is there tension between visiting Chinese mainlanders coming in to make purchases and Hong Kong residents?

[Kwun Chung Law]

On the one hand, there is indeed tension. As I've mentioned, mainland China uses propaganda to raise nationalism in China, and they need opponents to raise the nationalism of the Chinese people. They treat everyone who points a finger toward the Chinese people as their opponents, and Hong Kong citizens are one of them.

On the other hand, Hong Kong citizens suffered from the influx of Chinese visitors who bought goods daily in their community. The amount of visitors is huge. Basically, Hong Kong cities cannot afford that number of people. It interrupts the daily life of the people, and people are very annoyed about this issue.

So there is indeed tension, but it also reflects why Hong Kong is important to China or to the world. Under one country, two systems, we still have the rule of law and we still have established systems under which we can identify which goods are authentic and which goods are fake. This is why people come to Hong Kong, because in China they cannot recognize which one is fake or which one is authentic. This is unique to Hong Kong. They also reversed some uniqueness toward...China from Hong Kong. That's one of the things we have to preserve in the future and not see deteriorated by intervention from China.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Ms. Brown, please finish up.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

This kind of follows up on the question Mr. Garneau just asked. One of the areas that we really didn't touch on today is the whole aspect of the business community and where it sits on these issues. Are the business ties becoming closer between Hong Kong and the west, or are the ties for business becoming closer to mainland China? What kind of influence are they having on this debate?

That is for anyone who wants to take the question.

[Audrey Eu]

I'll take this one.

The business sector, of course, is also divided. Probably you have more business tycoons siding with China because that's where the business interests lie. That's where the business opportunities are. As well, Beijing keeps a very tight ring. They will know who is donating or who wants to donate to a democratic cause, and there may be repercussions. That is why it's always very difficult for any democratic association in Hong Kong to get any kind of large donations. The business sector is very jittery about this.

But then, of course, you also have some business people who are very keen that Hong Kong carry on the way it was, because for businesses you need a constant environment. You need rule of law and a level playing field, whereas with China there is a lot of corruption, a lot of change in rules and regulations, with sort of hidden agendas, and so on.

That's why business people prefer doing business in Hong Kong, for obvious reasons.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Just as a final comment, Ms. Eu, you don't want your businesses becoming politically involved with large donations because then your politicians owe them back. You're better to get your donations from individuals.

[Audrey Eu]

That's certainly true. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

To our witnesses, thank you very much for being here today and for joining us.

Thank you to our colleagues in Hong Kong for staying up well past midnight to be a part of this.

Thank you, Mr. Law, for making the trip from Hong Kong to be here; and Mr. Burton, thank you as well for a very insightful meeting.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.