Hong Kong has changed considerably these last few years - is it still worth living there?

While I’m writing these lines looking through my hotel room window, I’m enjoying the view of the narrow water way between the New Territories and the densely populated island of Tsing Yi. As a German expat, I have been living in Hong Kong for the past 12 years.

When the Hong Kong government finally reduced the mandatory quarantine for inbound travellers from three weeks to one week last April, I took the opportunity to book a flight to Germany to see my family and friends after an absence of more than two years.

So now that I’m back in Hong Kong after a month, I have to spend one week in isolation in a hotel room. I feel a bit like a wrongfully incarcerated convict in solitary confinement (OK, to be fair, there is no air conditioning in prison and this room is much too spacious for a prison cell).

Admittedly, the pandemic has affected the quality of life of almost everyone around the globe but apart from those who lost loved ones, expats’ lives in China and Hong Kong were heavily impacted by the mandatory quarantine that kept many of us apart from our family and friends in our home countries for more than two years. For that reason, expats have been fleeing by the thousands in the past few years. So what the heck am I still doing here?

So it’s indeed high time to take stock of living conditions here in Hong Kong and to ask: What are the positive and negative aspects of living in Hong Kong? Is it still worth coming to Hong Kong as an expat nowadays? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons.

Pros

1. Hong Kong is a tax haven

If you are subject to paying Hong Kong’s salary tax, you are definitely in luck. Apart from a generous tax allowance, Hong Kong’s maximum tax rate on salaries is 17%. Yep, you read that right, Hong Kong is a tax haven. That means if you had a particularly good year at your work place and your boss decides to pay a generous bonus, you will only pay 17% salary tax on that bonus amount (given your salary is high enough to be taxed at 17%), no strings attached.

While it usually took me several hours to complete my tax return back in the olden days in Germany, it literally took me ten minutes when I filed my last tax return here in Hong Kong. The taxation system is simple and transparent. On top of that, you don’t pay tax on investment profits and Hong Kong does not have a VAT (sales tax).

But beware, depending on the legal situation regarding double taxation in your home country, you might still have to pay an additional income tax in your home country. In Germany, the situation is this: Hong Kong is regarded as a tax haven and if you don’t deregister all your residential addresses in Germany, it could happen that the German tax authority asks you to pay the difference between the low Hong Kong salary tax rate and the higher German tax rate. Fortunately I knew this before leaving.

If you are from a country that applies a global income tax to all its nationals like the US and Canada, you might not be so lucky and might have to pay a higher tax in the end. I’m not a tax expert, so it is important that you do your own research.

2) Hong Kong is a paradise for foodies and shoppers

I’m personally getting more and more minimalistic in my lifestyle choices as I passed my early forties. So I don’t count time-consuming shopping tours among my hobbies. But if you are a bargain-hunter, Hong Kong is definitely for you. Whenever there is some new land plot available somewhere in the already crowded urban area of Hong Kong and it’s not for residential use, they usually put a new shopping mall there because Hong Kongers and mainland Chinese tourists just love them - despite the fact that all you find in there are just more outlets of the same chain stores…

But some products are definitely cheaper here than in Europe, for instance Asian cosmetics brands. Electronics are also mostly cheaper here than in Europe. This is particularly true for Apple products. Apart from the non-existent VAT (sales tax) the main reason is probably that the Hong Kong Dollar is pegged to the US-Dollar, which means that US companies selling in Hong Kong don’t have a currency risk. Peculiarly, Apple products are even a little cheaper here than in the US because in the US only net prices are on display and the sales tax(es) is added only once you check out at the cashier.

On the flip side, some imported textile products that are not made in China or other Asian low-wage countries are definitely more expensive here - that’s why I bought three pairs of shoes on my last trip to Germany (some shoe brands like Lloyd or Geox price some of their models twice as high as in Germany).

In the food department, Hong Kong is definitely superior to most cities of my home country Germany - maybe with the exception of sweet dishes and pastry. Hong Kongers love going out for lunch and dinner. Because of the high property price level and small living space with even smaller kitchens, it is not uncommon to see office workers eat out three times on a week day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Eating out is generally cheaper (mostly for decent Asian cuisines including the local cuisine) than in most European countries, which is probably related to the lower salaries paid for service jobs here.

However, there is definitely no shortage of fine dining luxury restaurants either - as to the prices on the menu, the sky is the limit. So eating genuine Spanish dinner in Hong Kong will obviously set you back here more than in Spain.

Most restaurants have a service charge, so keep in mind that 10% are added to the total amount on the bill. At first sight, this might contradict what I wrote in the first section (no sales tax), however the service charge is not a tax, it is actually a standardised mandatory tip. Nevertheless, Asian food is still way cheaper (and much better!) than in Europe.

When it comes to tipping, it is not frowned upon like in Japan where some people (e.g. taxi drivers) might consider it almost an insult (“A price is a price”), however, most Hong Kongers only leave small change on the tray or don’t tip at all when they pay by credit card (or the numerous other electronic means of payment). No one in a service job expects a tip though - especially not in the restaurant business where a service charge exists anyway. I personally like this attitude a lot because it removes a lot of the awkwardness that I sometimes feel when I have to tip like in Germany (either I have the feeling it’s not enough or it’s too much).

3) You don’t need a car in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has a world class public transport system - which is mostly related to its very high population density. During the rush hour, trains in Hong Kong’s subway system (MTR or Mass Transit Railway) arrive in one-minute-intervals. What always amazes me is that this high service level is maintained already over a long period of time with very little exceptions (like during the 2019 pro-democracy protests). Despite a very good network coverage across the territory, Hong Kong’s MTR is still work in progress  - a total of 14 new MTR stations were added since I arrived here in 2010 -  and probably will always be.

Furthermore, there are always alternative means of transport available like double-decker buses, trams (on Hong Kong Island only) and mini-buses. I personally use an app called City Mapper to plan trips to areas that I don’t know well yet - it reliably shows connections minimising your total travel time. On top of that, public transport is relatively cheap. I guess I pay a total of 500 HKD for public transport per month (I commute between HK Island and Kowloon) but the MTR offers transport fee subsidies (I never understood the exact logic behind it though) which you can collect with an NFC-card called “Octopus Card”.

If you still need to buy your own car, keep in mind that buying a new car is expensive because of a 100% tax. Yep, you read that right - Hong Kong has no general VAT or sales tax but owning a car is definitely luxury here, which makes sense because Hong Kong’s road traffic is pretty congested already. Now in early July 2022 the standard petrol price at gas stations stands between 19 HKD and 23 HKD (currently 2.42-2.93 USD) - much higher than in the USD or Europe.

Even if you don’t drive your car, just parking it will set you back 2000 to 4000 HKD (254 USD - 510 USD) per month, depending in which area you live, unless you buy the parking lot - which has been a popular type of investment in recent years, no kidding.

If you need to get home after public transport hours (usually after 1 am) or you need to reach an area where public transport coverage is patchy, just take a Uber or a taxi. The prices per km are similar - the basic starting fee is currently 27 HKD. I would estimate that taking a taxi in my home country Germany is about double as expensive as in Hong Kong - again, services are definitely cheaper in Hong Kong.

4) If you are a single male, Hong Kong is great for dating

This part is the hardest for me to write but this article wouldn’t be complete without it… the reason is that I’m rather introverted and not a dating expert at all. I never used a dating app either. And yet, I have a girlfriend who is Hong Kong Chinese. Even for a shy guy like me, it is possible to find a girlfriend here.

Generalisations will always provoke objections but I have to point out that especially white males (even the average looking ones like me) have a slight advantage vis-a-vis other ethnicities. The cause might date back to colonial times when Hong Kong was part of the British Empire (until 1997). This weird kind of positive discrimination is also prevalent in some other areas, for example a few months ago I had to go to a hospital and I had the impression that my waiting time was shorter than for the locals. I personally find it awkward sometimes so I try not to take advantage of it.

However, while there are a lot of local women with a preference for Caucasian men, it is by no means a rule that is always true. First of all, not all local women are willing to date foreigners, since they might return to their home country after a while, so dating foreigners is risky for those women looking for a long-term relationship. Moreover, you also see local women accompanied by Indians, Africans or Asian men from other countries. So never make the mistake trying to take advantage of the positive discrimination that sometimes seems to come along with white skin colour - taking good care of your body and being charming are certainly equally important to make a good first impression.

If local women (or other Asian women) are generally open to dating a foreigner is relatively easy to find out. Simply join a Meet-Up event or join events organised by Internations, an expat network whose only agenda is bringing together global minds (with locals, too) and maybe sending you an occasional email with advertising that might or might not be relevant for your expat life.

5) Hong Kong is a great place for outdoor activities

While Hong Kong’s shoreline and numerous islands can’t quite compete with places like Phuket or Pattaya, they are nevertheless worth exploring. Whether you are into water sports or an occasional weekend boat party, Hong Kong is definitely for you (at least when there is no pandemic ongoing).

Hong Kong’s densely populated urban area occupies about 60% of the total territory - that leaves 40% for country parks and outlying islands - which regularly attract numerous hikers. Since Hong Kong’s territory is just six times as large as Washington, D.C. and about half of Luxembourg’s territory you still have good LTE (4G) reception in most areas although you can’t even see any of the sky scrapers any more when your hiking trail leads you deep into the woods.

My favourite hiking trail virtually starts in front of my door since the apartment I share with my girlfriend is located in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island so the neighbouring country park is just a stone throw away.

Hong Kong’s climate is subtropical so it is advisable to stay hydrated and do regular exercise in shadowy areas or indoors so you won’t suffer too much from the high air humidity and a temperature that even at night rarely falls below rarely fall below 26 degrees centigrade between May and October. The best time for outdoor activities (except water sports) is therefore between November and March since temperatures during those months are usually only somewhere between 10 and 25 degrees centigrade.

Oh, and when eat your lunch during a hike in the New Territories, watch out for those feisty monkeys - they might try to steal your sandwich.

Cons

1) Living space is at a premium

On average, Hong Kongers spend 50.25% of their monthly outgoings on rent - the highest percentage spent on rent in the world. Moreover, Hong Kong has the second highest rent to income ratio in the world with rent eating up 65.8 % of the average household’s income - peculiarly behind Azerbaijan with 70% of income spent on rent (for details see this study).

In practical terms, depending on the area, the headcount of your household and your expectations, you should reserve between 12,000 and 25,000 HKD (1500 - 3200 USD) in your monthly budget for rent.

Don’t expect US or European sized apartments on the upper end of this range - on Hong Kong Island for instance, 25,000 HKD will get you a 3 bedroom apartment with a surface area of about 600 square feet, that is around 41 HKD per square foot.

Needless to say, buying a 600 square foot apartment that isn’t located too far from Central will cost you the equivalent of a decent single-family house somewhere in the suburb of a larger city in Western Europe. You also need to take into account that as a foreigner without a permanent Hong Kong ID card (which is basically your stay permit) you can get a maximum of 70% credit of the property value (not based on market value but based on the bank’s evaluation). With a rising interest rate, the annual repayment cost is obviously on the rise, too.

On the flip side, property prices have been slightly falling since the beginning of the pandemic and for the first time since I arrived here in 2010, I have actually paid 500 HKD less rent for the same apartment when I signed a new contract back in 2020 - during the preceding years, my apartment rent either stayed the same or went up.

After the end of the pandemic, this downward trend is unlikely to continue - it would lead too far here to discuss the exact causes for Hong Kong’s high property price level but let’s just mention briefly that it dates back to colonial times with the so called British land-lease system, the Hong Kong government’s questionable way to auction residential land to the highest bidder in a rather opaque one-round bidding system and the tax base being too narrow and too reliant on property transactions.

Hong Kong residential property law includes a standard tenancy contract that I would recommend you stick to when negotiating with the property agent. As a side note, it is hard to find an apartment without an agent - although from time to time you might stumble across an ad posted by the property owner. The agent fee will set you back half a monthly rent - the landlord pays the other half. The standard contract expires after two years, while during the first year neither the landlord nor the tenant can get out of the contract and during the second year, either side can cancel the contract with one month notice.

Lastly, in order to increase your disposable income, it is advisable to include a clause in your employment contract which should state that a part of your salary is reserved as a (partial) refund for your rental cost per month up to a certain maximum amount. There is a section in the tax return form - filling in this annual amount will reduce your taxable income.

2) Chinese is hard to learn

Learning a foreign language is challenging and it becomes harder the more advanced your age is. While this is general wisdom, Chinese has its own additional difficulties which you start facing once you try to advance beyond those handful of survival phrases.

First of all, Chinese is actually kind of a language family with Mandarin or Putonghua being by far the largest of the two with over one billion speakers (although there are many, many dialects) and Cantonese being the smaller of the two with about 100 million speakers. The Hong Kong basic law only states that Chinese and English are the two official languages of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (as Hong Kong is officially called since the handover in 1997) but the most prevalent spoken language by far is definitely Cantonese.

Before the pandemic when Hong Kong was still accessible for tourists without lengthy quarantine, you could hear more and more Mandarin speakers in public but since 2020 I have the impression that the trend has reversed again - which is probably only a temporary phenomenon.

While the Chinese language (this is true for Mandarin and Cantonese) only has a very simple grammar, which makes it easy to get started with a few simple phrases, it does have certain rules about syntax, especially concerning word order. So you don’t have to learn noun flexions like in German or verb conjugation tables. Tenses for instance are simply marked by using temporal adverbs like now, yesterday, tomorrow etc. without changing the verb ending.

The challenging aspects of Chinese are twofold: First of all both Mandarin and Cantonese are tonal languages. Second, writing and reading Chinese is very hard, especially if your native language does not use a pictographic writing system (if you are Japanese, you are in luck because Kanji is basically Chinese).

The tones do not, as is sometimes wrongly stated, have any grammatical meaning. The reality rather is that in Chinese words, the smallest lingual units that carry meaning, are always exactly one syllable long. While in European languages, words can be one syllable long, like “cat” or “dog” but often aren’t, e.g. “wa-ter” the syllables as such do not carry meaning unless they are words themselves by chance. So in "water" the syllables “wa" and “ter” don’t mean anything.

In Chinese however, words are always, without exception, one syllable long. This is pretty straight-forward. As a complication, it turns out that Chinese has fewer syllables compared with Indo-European languages like English, Spanish or German…  So this means that Chinese has a lot of homophones - the pronunciation being the same but the meanings are different (like “to”, “too” and “two” in English). This is where the tones come in. Tones actually can have a differentiating function and basically change the intonation of a syllable. However, even including the tones, Chinese still has a lot of homophones compared with languages like English or German.

Example: The syllable “fang” in Mandarin. The Chinese characters that are pronounced like “fang” are probably over 80, no kidding. However, when you add the tone, the number of possible characters that are pronounced like this are far fewer. E.g. if you raise your voice and pronounce it like “fáng” and add a particle often used for objects “zi” (子), it most probably means house or apartment “房子”. If you lower your voice and shorten the vowel a bit (fàng) it can mean “set free” (放). The same intonation as the first example “fáng” however also could be the character “肪” which means (animal) fat.

The challenging part here lies not only in mastering the tones (otherwise there will be frequent misunderstandings) but obviously also in listening comprehension. Additionally, bear in mind that while Mandarin has four tones (and one neutral tone), Cantonese has six or even nine tones depending on the textbook you use… Yep, it’s complicated.

Lastly, you need to know about 3000 Chinese characters to understand a simple newspaper article… that is the sad truth. So you basically need to practise everyday or else you will lose the knowledge once acquired pretty quickly.

So can you get along with English only in Hong Kong? Well, yes and no. If you stay on the beaten “expat paths” and only have lunch and dinner in well known areas, then yes. However, paying more for food in Hong Kong does not always get you better quality. In fact Hong Kong has many crappy-looking local restaurants that serve quality food at low prices - unfortunately sometimes without the luxury of an English menu. In those areas off the beaten paths, the staff might not understand any English.

When it comes to formalities like opening a bank account, extending your work visa or signing up for a gym membership, Hong Kong basically functions in English very well. This is definitely a big advantage you have here as an expat compared with mainland China.

So is it worth learning Cantonese or Mandarin or even both? If you plan to stay in Hong Kong only for a year or so (e.g. for study) and your curriculum / work environment is in English, I would say it’s optional - learn some simple Cantonese to show off but you won’t have time to dive deep into the intricacies of the language anyway. On the flip side, if you plan on staying here in the long term and your job is not related to mainland China, then definitely learn some Cantonese. Take a language class since this is a great opportunity to make some new friends anyway and in case you are motivated to keep learning in the long run, I would recommend to practise at least an hour every week either with an offline or online tutor (e.g. I used preply.com for Mandarin).

While I personally took Cantonese lessons in the past, my level stagnated some time ago since I decided to deepen my knowledge of Mandarin instead. In my case this is mostly job-related - Mandarin is just more useful for me. Unless you are a true language-geek, I would not recommend learning Mandarin and Cantonese at the same time. It’s as if you are Chinese, live at the Dutch border in Germany and try to learn both languages - they are just too similar and too different at the same time so you will get confused…

3) If you are a single female, Hong Kong isn’t great for dating

First of all, here is a basic fact: Hong Kong’s gender ratio in 2021 was 84.48 males per 100 females - this means that out of 201 countries/territories Hong Kong ranks first in terms of female to male ratio. Or stated another way: Hong Kong has a surplus of women and this includes a surplus of women in age groups where dating activity is usually at its highest.

The reason for this imbalance is probably that women generally tend to marry upwards in social terms more than men - in Hong Kong’s case many Hong Kong men marry women from mainland China. As a side note, the situation in China is reversed - there is actually a male surplus.

The consequence is that a lot of local women simply can’t find a partner / spouse and stay single during most of their lives or at least never get married.

So if you are a female expat, well educated and single, your chances of finding a suitable partner (for life?) are slimmer in Hong Kong than for your male counterparts. Of course, I might be totally wrong when it comes to individual cases. There are certainly a lot of female expats who found their partner for life in Hong Kong through Meet-up or an online dating app. However, looking at the naked numbers, chances are lower than for male expats.

Wandering around on Hong Kong’s streets, you definitely see less Caucasian female / Asian male couples than the other way around, so it looks as if foreign men are more willing to date Asian women than foreign women (mostly from Western countries) are willing to date Asian men. Again, this seems to be true for the large numbers but with a lot of individual counter-examples.

The question is also: How’s the competition among Western women and Asian local women? As a foreign Caucasian man in Hong Kong I must admit that one of the reasons I probably stayed so long is that Asian women in Hong Kong are (mostly) eye-candy. Even many of middle-aged women still look extremely good for their age. It also puzzles me how they manage to stay so slim although one of their hobbies certainly is eating out (the Chinese are kind of food-obsessed - not that there is anything wrong with it :-). So watch out, expat girls: competition here at the Pearl River is stiff.

4) Environmental protection and a healthy living environment aren’t exactly political priorities

When judging Hong Kong’s environmental and health policy nowadays we need to bear in mind that the city basically owes its existence to the British who were looking for a permanent base for China-trading back in the 19th century. So Hong Kong became a hub for trading and finance. After Hong Kong was handed over to China back in 1997, the city remained a business oligarchy where environmental concerns still take a backseat to profit-seeking.

Before this background, it is no surprise that the average Hong Konger’s lifestyle, driven by a use-and-discard mentality, is very wasteful - for example, back in 2018 Hong Kong’s recycling rate was only 30%, the lowest in 20 years whereas Singapore has a recycling rate of 61%. Hong Kong’s per capita waste per day is about 1.5kg - almost double that of Tokyo and Hong Kong only has three landfills. Currently, Hong Kong’s first waste incineration facility is under construction because even the most ignorant politicians have begun to realise that the day will come sooner than later when all landfills will be filled up to the maximum…(see this source for details).

Admittedly, recycling isn’t easy in Hong Kong. Residential skyscrapers only have one trash bin on each floor without any separation by material. It is still possible to recycle though - Hong Kong has so called “Green Stations” scattered across the territory, where we throw our plastic, metal, paper and glass packagings into designated recycling bins. As long as recycling doesn’t become mandatory and/or households don’t need to pay for waste, the recycling rate isn’t likely to go up any time soon.

To make matters worse, Hong Kong also has an air quality problem. E.g. in 2021 NO2 concentrations at road side measuring stations exceeded the maximum WHO recommendation by 620% while PM 2.5 concentrations were exceeded by 320% (details here). There are multiple causes for bad air quality in certain areas of the city. First of all, Hong Kong’s public bus fleet mostly consists of Diesel-guzzling double-deckers and trucks, many of which come from mainland China, also have Diesel engines. Second, the numerous ships in Hong Kong’s harbour burn heavy fuel oil, which doesn’t exactly improve air quality in coastal areas.

So it is advisable to buy a good quality air filter in case you decide to move to Hong Kong. And don’t worry about the electricity cost. In our two person household we don’t pay for electricity. Yep, no kidding. The reason is that the Hong Kong government pays an electricity bill subsidy of 150 HKD per month (about 19 USD). Although we benefit from this, this measure is economical and ecological nonsense. Instead of encouraging households to waste electricity, it would make more sense to simply support low-income households directly without linking the subsidy to the electricity bill.

For fairness’s sake, I should mention that there are a few glimmers of hope on the horizon. First of all, deregistering a vehicle with a combustion engine and then registering a new electric vehicle does not only improve local air quality, it also pays off because the car owner benefits from a generous tax-break (see point 3 in the pros section - Hong Kong taxes new vehicles at a 100% rate). The consequence of this policy is that in the last few years, more and more Teslas appear on Hong Kong’s roads. While electric cars don’t have a better environmental footprint (yet) than combustion cars over their whole lifetime, they are certainly a step in the right direction for a densely populated city like Hong Kong.

Second, more and more recycling stations pop up over the city, a trend that should make recycling easier. Moreover, the HK government held a public consultation last year about phasing out disposable tableware and cutlery, so there is a good chance that Hong Kong will follow the example of the European Union and Canada.

5) Hong Kong’s basic rights and freedoms are eroding

During the colonial area until 1997, Hong Kong has never truly been a democracy, however Hong Kong had a British style judicial system with the rule of law as its most important principle. Hong Kong citizens, contrary to their brothers and sisters beyond the Chinese border, benefited from freedoms close to those of UK citizens.

As to the system of governance, the British Queen appointed Hong Kong’s Governor who in turn appointed almost all members of the Legislative and Executive Councils and also served as President of both chambers. Only in 1985, indirectly elected functional constituency seats were introduced and popularly elected geographical constituencies in 1991. An electoral reform in 1994 improved the Legislative Council’s representativeness (source). This means that Hong Kong’s government system became more democratic only during the last years of the colonial era.

The so called Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed by the UK Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of the PRC in 1984, not only stated the handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China on July 1st 1997 but also that the socialist system would not be practised in the Hong Kong SAR and that Hong Kong’s capitalist system and way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years after the handover (source).

Unfortunately in recent years and especially since 2019, the Hong Kong population’s basic rights and freedoms have been eroding which is mostly related to an increasing influence of the Chinese Central Government and Communist Party over Hong Kong politics. Basically all Chief Executives (kind of Hong Kong’s PM) in the last 10 years or so are leaning pro-Beijing which made HK’s last Chief Executive Carrie Lam try to introduce legislation in 2019 that would facilitate the extradition of criminals (and pro-democracy activists) not only to democratic Taiwan but also to authoritarian mainland China.

This draft legislation triggered the biggest mass protest movement the city had ever seen: on June 12th 2019, roughly one million Hong Kongers took to the streets, an impressive number, given Hong Kong’s relatively small population of seven million people.

In response to the mass protests, the HK government finally shelved the extradition law after a couple of months. Despite this measure, a small group of more radical activists escalated the protests into violence (with the HK police and pro-Beijing protestors playing an important role in the escalation, too) - which caused injuries and casualties on all sides of the conflict as well as a great deal of material damage to public infrastructure.

The protests died down in early 2020 with the outbreak of Covid-19, however the anger flared up again in late May 2020 when the National People’s Congress of China announced that it would authorise the so called Standing Committee of the NPC (NPCSC) to promulgate a National Security Law (NSL) for Hong Kong.

…The proposed national security law seeks to prevent external interference in Hong Kong's affairs, criminalise acts that threaten national security such as subversion and secession, allow the State Council of the People's Republic of China to establish a national security agency in Hong Kong when necessary and require the Chief Executive to send the central government periodic reports on national security (source).

The legality of the NSL, which finally came into force on 30th June 2020, has been disputed by the Hong Kong Bar Association on grounds that the Hong Kong Basic Law’s Article 23 requires the Hong Kong Legislative Council  (LegCo) to enact such a law, not the NPCSC. It should be mentioned that an attempt to pass a national security law had already been made in 2003 by the LegCo, however the bill was abandoned after mass protests.

Contrary to the HK Bar Association, the HK Justice Department argued that since national security is outside the limits of the HKSAR, the inclusion of the National Security Law in Annex III of HK’s Basic Law is legal.

Whatever the legality of the procedure to enact the law is, it is clear that the Chinese central government used the opportunity of the mass protests and the ensuing violence to finally impose a national security law on Hong Kong’s legal system.

The pan-democratic camp, lawyers and human rights organisations criticised that the NSL is a threat to the one country, two systems principle which guarantees Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy. This point of view is supported by several problematic provisions of the NSL:

1) The Chinese government set up a security office with its own personnel in Hong Kong which already lead to an intensification and broadening of surveillance activities in Hong Kong.

2) Foreign media and foreign organisations are to be “closely monitored”.

3) The Chinese government has the right to conduct trials behind closed doors in “serious cases” - the definition what is serious enough is apparently up to the central government or the security office.

4) Secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign countries is to be punished with imprisonment from 3 years to life.

The problematic part isn’t terrorism here, it is what actually constitutes collusion with foreign forces. In an interview in 2021 the European Union Envoy to Hong Kong and Macau said that even civil society groups devoted to causes outside politics are reluctant to meet European diplomats (see here). The result might be the erosion of Hong Kong’s civil society.

5) Police can search a suspect’s home without a warrant “in case of urgency”. The question is: what’s urgent enough to justify this? Where to draw the line?

6) The Hong Kong government can freeze assets of a suspect.

In a nutshell, at least some of the provisions in the NSL seem to be a blank cheque for the HK government to establish Chinese style authoritarianism. Arrests of politically inconvenient politicians and activists on the basis of the NSL have already taken place (e.g. see here).

Another consequence of the growing influence of Chinese mainland-style authoritarianism is the election system reform that took place in 2021. Originally, a LegCo election should have taken place in September 2020 but the government “postponed” the election citing the ongoing pandemic. Strangely, in the same venues where the polling stations usually are set up, a Covid-19 mass testing took place - probably with more people than would have gone to the election.

The election reform basically authorised the government (backed by the Chinese central government) to hand-pick only “patriotic” election candidates - other candidates not deemed patriotic enough were simply banned from running in the LegCo elections that finally took place in November 2021.

Tragically, the very few moderate candidates that had made it into the final selection mostly lost the election - the result was that pro-Beijing legislators now practically dominate LegCo. The reason is that pro-democratic voters mostly boycotted the polls, leaving the field to the pro-Beijing leaning voters. Indeed, Hong Kong’s population is divided - many are in favour of PRC style rule in Hong Kong.

As a result of the pro-democracy protests - and this is actually a success of the movement - the so called “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” was passed by the US Congress in 2019. Originally drafted in 2014 on the background of the “Umbrella Movement”, it finally came into force in November 2019. The law “requires the U.S. government to impose sanctions against mainland China and Hong Kong officials considered responsible for human rights abuses in Hong Kong, and requires the US Department of State and other agencies to conduct an annual review to determine whether changes in Hong Kong's political status (its relationship with mainland China) justify changing the unique, favorable trade relations between the U.S. and Hong Kong.” (see here).

On the basis of this law, the US government took two measures that are worth mentioning:

First of all, Hong Kong lost its favourable trade policy status to the extent that products fully or partially made in Hong Kong must be labeled “made in China”.

Second, Hong Kong and mainland officials involved in supporting or passing the NSL were actually targeted by sanctions. As a consequence, Hong Kong’s former Chief Executive Carrie Lam (she only recently stepped down) cannot use any credit cards any more and is denied a bank account even at the Bank of China. Since the sanctions came into force, she has to carry home her generous monthly remuneration in the form of a bag full of Hong Kong Dollar bank notes (source).

The doctrine of the PRC’s superior political system and society has already entered journalism and school education in Hong Kong. E.g. it is not allowed any more to criticise the central government or the Chinese Communist Party in the classroom (e.g. see here).

On the flip side, access to foreign news websites is still possible without requiring connection to a foreign VPN server (contrary to mainland China). Moreover, critical articles and op-eds are still published in English (online) newspapers like Hong Kong Free Press and even from time to time in the South China Morning Post, which by the way is owned by the largest Chinese company Alibaba. However, for how long will critical articles be possible? The HK government did not hesitate to effectively shut down the controversial Chinese newspaper “Apple Daily” in 2021 (see here).

As a consequence of the eroding freedoms, Hong Kong is suffering from a brain drain - thousands of families with children have already left Hong Kong. The emigration wave has accelerated since the beginning of 2022 which is mostly related to the tougher government measures against the Omicron Virus (e.g. see here). Many expats have left for good and many more have probably already removed Hong Kong from their list of possible destinations for working abroad.

Final Thoughts

According to Internations, an expat organisation, Hong Kong was the 10th most popular city among expats in 2014 while by 2021 Hong Kong dropped to rank 46. The clashes between pro-democracy activists in 2019, the growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party in politics  and eroding freedoms certainly contributed to Hong Kong’s waning popularity.

On top of that, Hong Kong’s government imposed the strictest Covid-19 quarantine policy in the world (only surpassed by mainland China) - depending on the inbound traveller’s origin, the mandatory quarantine period was two to three weeks until April 2022.

Back in March 2022, the government even announced that a mainland-style lockdown would be imposed for one week in late April to test Hong Kong’s seven million population for the Omicron virus - this would basically have meant an all-day-curfew during which people would only be allowed to go out for an hour per day. Needless to say, the announcement triggered panic buying - certain food prices rose sharply and some foods were difficult to get for weeks.

In April, the government then finally realised that because of Hong Kong’s high population density and different living conditions compared with mainland China, a hard lockdown would create more problems than effectively solve, so finally the lockdown was called off. After all, when a few months ago whole apartment blocks with thousands of people were locked down, sanitary conditions deteriorated and many complained about unreliable food supply. This scenario might have come true for the whole city if the mainland style lockdown had been implemented.

So would I still come to Hong Kong as a long-term expat nowadays? The answer is clearly no. But I don’t regret my decision that I made back in 2010. These past 12 years clearly have been a journey with ups and downs. On the plus side I have learnt so much about the Chinese culture and made new friends from very different backgrounds than myself. I also learnt to see my own home country in a new light.

On the other hand, these past few years with the pro-democracy clashes in 2019 and the pandemic starting in 2020 have been a hell of a ride. Yet there are few places on Earth where the pandemic has been easy to cope with.

If you should come to Hong Kong as an expat, depends very much on your own personal background and what you would do in Hong Kong. If you work in finance for example and can expect a high salary (especially with your company sponsoring your work visa), by all means, come to Hong Kong for a few years, it certainly will make your CV more interesting. After all Hong Kong is still one of the world’s most important financial hubs. Besides, not only your salary will be taxed at a very low rate: for private individuals, profits from capital gains are even tax-free.

On the flip side, you should think hard before you come here if you have children or want to have children. For now, the Chinese communist education doctrine has not taken a foothold in international private schools but who knows for how long?

Hong Kong, July 2022