In the 2019 Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Hong Kong ranked 4th out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index (Human Development Index), leaving behind Germany, which ranked 85th. China, it can be seen that there is a gap in the development progress of the two places. Scholars believe that rankings and reports reflect that Hong Kong is still far behind China in terms of education, per capita income, personal safety index, etc. Therefore, integration between the two places will be difficult. As can be seen from the "anti-extradition bill" movement in recent months, Hong Kong people I am worried about being sent back to the mainland for interrogation, and related issues are not easy to resolve.
Pan Xuezhi, an associate researcher at the Shanghai-Hong Kong Development Joint Research Institute of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, analyzed that in the United Nations report, Hong Kong was classified as a developed region with a "very high human development index", while China only belonged to the category of "high human development index". , is still regarded as a developing country internationally, so the comparison is at a different level. He also mentioned that referring to individual projects, it can be seen that there is a huge gap between the figures of China and Hong Kong in terms of personal safety, suicide and murder rates, information flow, and personnel mobility index, so "large-scale integration seems to be still some distance away, even if China The hardware is catching up faster, and during the integration process, people in China and Hong Kong have close exchanges, but the ideological barriers are difficult to break through."
Hong Kong people have been protesting since June, with the trigger being Hong Kong people's fight to retain judicial independence and strong opposition to the extradition bill. Poon Hok-chi also agreed that the protests highlighted Hong Kong people's adherence to the "one country, two systems" policy, especially considering the rule of law and human rights. The issue is closely related to the level of mainland China. "If Hong Kong people are sent to the mainland for trial, can they receive fair judgment and trial? These problems do not seem to be easy to solve, which worries countless people."
In addition, the report pointed out that when there is economic and power inequality in society, people will take to the streets. Pan Xuezhi pointed out that under globalization, the operation of multinational companies will cause economic inequality, which can be seen in the wave of demonstrations in recent months, such as the demonstrations in Ecuador and Lebanon. The protests were caused by economic problems, but he added that countries with high human development index rankings, such as Chile, which ranks 42nd, also had large-scale protests, reflecting that people in developed countries may have higher demands on society, in addition to economics, politics, etc. These demands are also the reason why people took to the streets.
