THE NUMBER of Hong Kong people applying for permits to live and travel in Taiwan has risen sharply as the territory's return to China on July 1st draws closer, a local television station reported yesterday.
A top representative of Taiwan's de facto mission in Hong Kong was quoted by ATV as saying the number of applications for right of abode in Taiwan has jumped eight-fold in recent months from the average monthly figure of around 1,000.
"We know a lot of Hong Kong people are worried about the situation after July 1st, whether it's about Hong Kong-Taiwan relations, or whether it would be as convenient just to visit Taiwan" Mr Zheng An-guo, general manager of the de facto mission Chong Hun Travel Agency, was quoted as saying.
The option to live in Taiwan will no longer be open to Hong Kong: people from midnight on June 30th, when the British colony of more than 150 years reverts to Chinese rule, the station said.
Under its post-handover constitution, Hong Kong must observe the "one China principle".
Communist China has regarded Taiwan as a rebel province since the Nationalist government fled to the island after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949. Mr Zheng also said he hoped relations between Hong Kong and Taiwan will not change after the handover.
"We hope there won't be such a situation. We hope that after July 1st, Taiwan-Hong Kong relations will be more intimate in nil areas and at all levels," he said.