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Why China’s Greater Bay Area plan fails to capture the imagination of young Hongkongers

  • While some recent graduates find Guangdong province to be a land of opportunity, the majority remain suspicious about mainland matters
  • Around 60 per cent of those surveyed do not believe the plan to integrate the city with the Pearl River Delta will be good for Hong Kong

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The Greater Bay Area aims to connect Pearl River Delta cities with Hong Kong and Macau. Photo: Roy Issa

For 32-year-old Hong Kong-born marketing graduate Peter Yuen who runs a snack delivery start-up in Panyu, a booming district in Guangzhou, the Greater Bay Area plan means opportunity.

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But he is an outlier.

According to a new survey released over the weekend by the Hong Kong Guangdong Youth Association, a privately funded foundation focused on promoting cross-border exchanges, more than 70 per cent of the young people in Hong Kong they interviewed held that the city should keep its distance from mainland China.

More than half believed that universities in Hong Kong should not open their door to mainland Chinese students.

The study, which comprised six focus groups with about 200 interviewees in Hong Kong aged between 15 to 64, was conducted late last year after anti-government protests broke out in the city.

It was conducted to “better understand young people’s views on the mainland and the Greater Bay Area”.

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