# What if Shenzhen merged with Hong Kong?



## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

This is an old article but I find it a bit interesting.

http://www.hkdf.org/newsarticles.asp?show=newsarticles&newsarticle=49

*What if Shenzhen merged with Hong Kong?
*

There has been debate on both sides of the border as to what will happen to Shenzhen, China's first experiment with capitalism, when this year China gets Hong Kong, the real thing. Could the two territories be merged? 

Shenzhen is a territory of _ _ square miles is twice the size of Hong Kong, with over 4 million people, of whom less than one million are official residents. Although Shenzhen has mountainous, it has much more useable space than Hong Kong. Its people include some of China's best. Young, energetic and entrepreneurial workers flock to Shenzhen from all over China, attracted by the high salaries and relatively greater freedom of the country's most successful economic zone. Turnover on Shenzhen's stock market has recently surpassed that of Hong Kong's own exchange. Shenzhen has port and airport facilities, as well as agricultural land.

There is a high degree of "soft" integration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. This does not extend to governmental links or more than basic physical infrastructure connections, but at the business unit level there is a high degree of integration with much Shenzhen manufacturing and property development, as well as many service businesses, controlled by Hong Kong principals.

Shenzhen has an outer border marking the boundary between the SEZ and the rest of Guangdong Province. While this border is not very effective, it could be improved. What would happen if the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen were removed?

For Hong Kong there could be many advantages.

*	Hong Kong would reintegrate with much of its former manufacturing base.

*	Infrastructure on both sides of the Shenzhen river could be properly coordinated, and the current bottleneck at the Lok Ma Chau crossing eliminated.

*	Hong Kong would gain access to new resources of land and labour, thus reducing upward pressure on property prices and wages and helping Hong Kong's competitiveness.

*	The Hong Kong economy would become more balanced, with some agriculture, a better supply of water, and generally greater diversity of resources. There would be more scope for locating port and airport facilities. Accommodation needs could be better met without filling in Hong Kong's harbour.

*	The greater experience of Shenzhen people and officials in dealing with the China environment would benefit Hong Kong as it becomes part of China.

There could also be very large intangible benefits if the shock of unification with Shenzhen prompted Hong Kong to reexamine some of its basic policies. In housing, welfare, education, allocation of monopoly franchises, Hong Kong is still operating under a policy framework that has hardly changed for decades. Many of these policies would have to be radically reviewed to accomodate 4 million more people. This might be highly beneficial.

The merger might give a boost to the democratisation process in Hong Kong. It is hard to see a quick way of extending Hong Kong's arcane constitutional system, with its bizarre functional constituencies, to Shenzhen. The only efficient way to accomodate millions of new poeple with diverse and as yet unknown views would be hrough democratic representation.

For Shenzhen, merger could also bring many benefits. Shenzhen has come to the end of its rationale as a SEZ. To progress further, it must develop the institutions of a civil society - a proper legal system, the rule of law through representative Government, secure property rights, professions, a culture of civic responsibility, reduction of corruption and crime. It would be a long road for Shenzhen to devlelop these things by itself, or as part of China's national process. So why not just buy into Hong Kong's system?

For both Hong Kong and Shenzhen there could be substantial advantages in merging. However, it would be in the interests of both for the merger to be on Hong Kong's terms. The merged territory should be a Greater Hong Kong, operating in accordance with Hong Kong's system, rather than a Greater Shenzhen. However, Hong Kong could learn a lot from the merger process, not least by being brought face to face with many of its antiquated policy assumptions.


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## wigo (Jan 23, 2006)

I would guess Guangdong would not be happy about it. But it is none of my buesniness


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## scorpion (Sep 14, 2002)

not what if a merger, but when...


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

I think it should be a further merger because there have been a lot of interaction going in between, and not only Shenzhen, but the whole Pearl River Delta.


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

Is the border from HK to Shenzhen all highly developed? They're not too close, are they?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

This issue has been discussed over and over again in these forums, but the practical reality is it is not going to happen and it is not even a priority on the HK and Shenzhen agendas. In the meantime, more co-operation and integration continues.


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## unusualer (Jul 23, 2005)

im pretty sure at least 90% of hk ppl dun want this happen


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

^Are you from Hong Kong? and if you were from Hong Kong, do you represent the 99% people of Hong Kong? There are more and more Hong Kong people live and work in Shenzhen or own properties, and check how much the income that mainland tourists take to Hong Kong.


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## Sen (Nov 13, 2004)

Shenzhen is Mandarin speaking.


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

Sen said:


> Shenzhen is Mandarin speaking.


That's true.


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## InitialD18 (Sep 17, 2002)

This is such an intriging topic ... 
but i don't think it will happen anytime soon ... 
however i do think there will be more interaction between the PRD ... 
prd needs to think as one to survive ... 
it would probably take like 5 minutes to cross border in a few years ... 
however i am more interested ... if they were really to merge ... 
how and what will happen??? and when is the best time???
should the border push north? does the law governing hong kong suddenly switches? what will happen to our properties market?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

ChinaboyUSA said:


> ^Are you from Hong Kong? and if you were from Hong Kong, do you represent the 99% people of Hong Kong? There are more and more Hong Kong people live and work in Shenzhen or own properties, and check how much the income that mainland tourists take to Hong Kong.


There are more Hong Kongers living and working in the mainland, but not commuting across Lo Wu or Huanggang on a daily basis. There are more Hong Kongers purchasing vacation homes in Guangdong as well, but cross-border commutes are still infeasible.

There is more economic integration between the mainland and Hong Kong, but notice there is still a distinct border and separation between the two groups. Mainlanders are welcome to visit Hong Kong and vice versa, but a downright merger is impossible since the social and economic backgrounds of Hong Kongers and their mainland counterparts are very different. Shenzhen residents will get a hefty pay raise if they were to receive Hong Kong-style salaries. Likewise, Hong Kongers will get a nasty pay cut if they were to receive Shenzhen-style salaries. This divergence alone is enough to keep a merger from happening for a generation. Hong Kong is at least a generation ahead of China in economic development. How do you reconcile the two? For example, there is a lot of fear that opening the Lo Wu border to a 24 hour operation will drastically affect the property market in the northern New Territories, and to some extent there is already a discount factored into the market prices.

As someone already alluded to, will Shenzhen take up Hong Kong law, or vice versa?


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## FM 2258 (Jan 24, 2004)

If they merged, what would they do about the side of the road people drive on? China drives on the right while Hong Kong drives on the left. That would be really weird for cross border commutes wouldn't you think?


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## unusualer (Jul 23, 2005)

ChinaboyUSA said:


> ^Are you from Hong Kong? and if you were from Hong Kong, do you represent the 99% people of Hong Kong? There are more and more Hong Kong people live and work in Shenzhen or own properties, and check how much the income that mainland tourists take to Hong Kong.


no im not from hk im from macao. but i know lots of hk ppl and understand the situation in hk quite well. u dun have to believe me. but merging with shenzhen would mean the end of 1 country 2 systems. dun u think ppl in hk would like to see that happen?


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## didu (Jun 13, 2005)

Sen said:


> Shenzhen is Mandarin speaking.


Really? I find that really hard to believe, I've been to shenzhen quite a few times
but all my visits were more than 10 years ago, and I don't seem to remember
much Mandarin speaking people ... not to mention that SZ is in Canton and
right next to GZ and HK.

Oh, I don't think the merge is going to happen, SZ is just not up to the standard
of HK.

For the driving issue, I wish HK would just switch to the same system that the
rest of China is using, it might be pretty painful in the first a few months, but
it will be better in the future...


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## Sen (Nov 13, 2004)

there are hkers driving in mainland, it's actually not a big problem, you just drive on the right side instead of left.
i suppose many shenzhen ppl speak at least some cantonese due to the proximity to hong kong, but for the majority of them cantonese is not their mother tongue, i have met a few people from shenzhen and they all speak mandarin better than cantonese.
for the laws, HK laws is based on English common law, while the mainland legal system is based on continental european civil law, i am not sure if what the differences are since i am no legal expert.


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## schmidt (Dec 5, 2002)

Is there a *BORDER* between Hong Kong and Mainland China?!?!?! Wow, I didn't know that!

Are there like customs and all those border things?


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## Monkey (Oct 1, 2002)

samsonyuen said:


> Is the border from HK to Shenzhen all highly developed? They're not too close, are they?


On the contrary they couldn't be closer. Shenzhen begins immediately beyond the Hong Kong border. Even the centre of Shenzhen is right next to the Hong Kong border.


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## InitialD18 (Sep 17, 2002)

most people in shenzhen actually could not speak cantonese
this certainly describes the amount of young chinese from all over
the country heading to shenzhen ... 
it would be interesting to see some statistics of shenzhen


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## hkth (Sep 15, 2005)

As a matter of fact, HK and Shenzhen used to be a part of Bao'an District. They seperated because of the British occupated the HK Island since 1841 and Kowloon Peninsula since 1860. Also, the British leased the "New Terrotories" for 99 years since 1898. :|



didu said:


> Really? I find that really hard to believe, I've been to shenzhen quite a few times. but all my visits were more than 10 years ago, and I don't seem to remember much Mandarin speaking people ... not to mention that SZ is in Canton and right next to GZ and HK.


Actually, it is not that difficult to believe. That's because the open and reform policy in 1978. And in 1980s, many people from other poorer northern provinces near Guangdong heard GD was a massive "goldmine" and they rushed into GD to be rich. At that time, SZ was a massive vacuum land and had a shortage of labor, they have a chance to get a job and build up SZ. Most of buildings were built by the people from other provinces and they stayed in SZ. That made SZ has more people speak in Mandarin, instead of Cantonese. :|


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