Hong Kongers and Taiwanese Increasingly Independent

New polls show Hong Kongers and Taiwanese increasingly consider themselves separate from Chinese in China. Unlike what the media may report, this is not due to Chinese policies. Instead, it is a reflection of social mood. The same trends at work in Europe, the UK and the United States are at work in Asia. Here's Nigel Farage explaining it:

...but the key argument today isn't the battle between free markets and state control, the key battle today is about community and identity, who are we as nations? Who are we as communities? How do we want to live? And this stuff has all been threatened by excessive immigration, and by things like our small businesses being closed down and our communities changing. The politics of the future, the politics of the next decade is about community and identity.

Losing Hearts And Minds

Anti-mainland sentiments still run high. A poll in October by Chinese University of Hong Kong found just 8.9% of respondents identifying themselves solely as “Chinese”, the lowest figure recorded in the survey—and way down on 32.1% in 1997, the year of Hong Kong’s handover. Nearly two-thirds identified themselves as a combination of Hong Konger and Chinese, but another 26.8% said they were just Hong Kongers, the highest share since 1998.

Polling tells a similar story in Taiwan. In a survey in June by National Chengchi University, 60.4% of respondents said they identified as Taiwanese, a record high and up from less than 50% when Mr Ma was first elected in 2008. Only 32.7% identified themselves as “both Taiwanese and Chinese”, a new low.

Economic weakness, which can be a subset of social mood if you believe in "strong" socionomics, will further fuel non-economic issues such as language, culture and identity.