Mainland-HK rhetoric needs cooling-off: experts

Latest exchanges come after mall protest

Academics in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland called on the two sides to reduce extremism, and remove the misunderstandings between two regions.

Those comments came after some netizens in the Chinese mainland called on the central government to stop financially supporting Hong Kong.

"The extreme comments showed the misunderstanding between people in the two regions," Gu Minkang, the associate dean of the School of Law with City University of Hong Kong, told the Global Times on Friday.

Statements such as "We are in support of Hong Kong canceling the individual visit scheme, but we also support in return canceling the power, water, gas and agricultural products supply to Hong Kong" made an appearance on Chinese social media in recent days, as have pictures of the travel pass to and from Hong Kong and Macao cut into pieces.

Those reactions come after an incident in February where hundreds of protesters confronted mainland shoppers and police inside a shopping mall in Hong Kong.

Most Hongkongers are friendly to mainland tourists, and those who are against the mainlanders do not represent the majority, Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, a Hong Kong legislator, told the Global Times, claiming that actions against tourists have a political purpose, which she said was to disturb the policy of "One Country, Two Systems."

Hongkongers should not turn against anyone who visited Hong Kong, she said, "We hope the people in the two regions will not hurt each other. Once people's feeling get hurt, it is hard to reconcile."

On Thursday, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing said at an earnings briefing that he is upbeat about the outlook of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong has the mainland market as its back, which is its biggest advantage.

He said if the government called off the individual visit scheme, the stock market in Hong Kong could drop by more than 1,000 points.