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To some international expatriates, Hong Kong has misplaced its enchantment as a world metropolis and now not appears like dwelling since Beijing took a heavier hand in its governance. But for a lot of former mainland Chinese like Angelina Wang, it has turn out to be a extra enticing place to stay and work.
Ms. Wang, in her early 30s, was feeling caught in her job at a state-owned finance firm in Shenzhen, a mainland metropolis simply throughout the border, when she examine a Hong Kong visa for skilled staff. She rapidly utilized. As quickly as she landed a job in Hong Kong — at greater pay — she informed her boss that she was quitting and moved there.
“Salary in Hong Kong is greater than that in Shenzhen,” Ms. Wang mentioned. “Lots greater.”
Ms. Wang was amongst about 55,000 mainland Chinese who’ve been granted this new “high expertise” visa since December 2022. Hong Kong’s semiautonomous standing inside China implies that Chinese residents want visas to stay and work within the metropolis.
Among visa holders now working in Hong Kong, many had been employed in finance, info know-how and commerce companies, in keeping with a survey by the town authorities in November. They had a month-to-month median revenue of fifty,000 Hong Kong {dollars}, or about $6,400, greater than twice the median revenue in Hong Kong.
Mainland Chinese interviewed by The New York Times cited a number of causes for in search of the visa. Some mentioned Hong Kong supplied higher pay and profession alternatives, in addition to higher colleges, larger freedom, and larger respect for ladies and people who find themselves L.G.B.T.Q.
The wave of working professionals is a welcome growth for Hong Kong. Beijing imposed a sweeping nationwide safety regulation on the town in 2020 in response to pro-democracy protests, and on Tuesday the Hong Kong authorities enacted one other safety regulation that gave the authorities much more energy to punish dissent. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong rolled out among the world’s hardest journey restrictions, hurting its financial system. About 200,000 individuals left the town from the center of 2019 to the tip of 2022, in keeping with metropolis figures. The inhabitants has since ticked up by about the identical quantity to 7.5 million.
