At the time of Hong Kong’s election for its next chief executive in 2017, first-time voters, having been born two years after the 1997 handover, will have known nothing but Chinese rule. When Taiwan’s people elect their next president in 2016, first-time voters will have known nothing but democracy, and will be several generations removed from the 1949 flight from the mainland.
To young Hong Kongers, the city has always been part of China; to young Taiwanese, the idea that the island is part of China is an anachronism. Given these differences, one might expect each community to relate to mainland China in very different ways. One would be mistaken.
In both Hong Kong and Taiwan, research centers conduct regular surveys on identity. And in both polities, these studies have revealed long-term trends that must be troubling to the mandarins in Beijing.
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