双语新闻：中秋将至 香港着手打击赴港水客
Hong Kong's Holiday Crackdown on MainlandSmugglersFor millions of Chinese, this weekend's Mid-Autumn Festivalmeans moon cakes, elaborate meals and family soirees. Forsmugglers in the southern city of Shenzhen, it's somethingmore: busy season.
As the holiday approaches, thousands of mainland Chinese daytrippers are flocking to nearby Hong Kong, where they buy up mass quantities of lobsters, mooncakes and other pricey delicacies to resell across the border for higher prices. Hong Kong'sfavorable exchange rate has made it a magnet for mainland shoppers seeking both cheaper pricesand stronger assurances on quality. Meanwhile, multiple-entry tourist visas have made it easy forShenzhen residents to exit and re-enter Hong Kong an unlimited number of times per day.
Such traders are bitterly resented by many Hong Kong residents, who accuse them of driving upprices of everything from milk powder to toothpaste, and of crowding subway stops close to theborder. On one Facebook FB -2.45% page, locals have taken to posting angrily captioned imagesof smugglers and their laden trolleys. 'A shameless locust trader puts four lobsters in a suitcase tosmuggle home,' reads one typical post, using a local derogatory term for mainland Chinese whotravel to Hong Kong to take advantage of higher quality products and services.
Though frustration over mainland traders has persisted for years, the issue has reached 'a breakingpoint,' says Peter Cheung of the University of Hong Kong, who studies cross-border issues. Tension with mainland China has simmered all year, spurred by the number of mainlanders whochoose to give birth and buy up property in Hong Kong, as well as the July inauguration of a newleader who many residents see as being too closely allied with Beijing.
To quell local wrath, Hong Kong's government has been cracking down on such smugglers, wholike other tourists aren't supposed to engage in business while in Hong Kong. In the past week, authorities have arrested 160 smugglers from neighboring Guangdong province, ranging in agefrom 22 to 60 years old, according to Hong Kong officials. Eight have been jailed for stints of twomonths each, and banned from entering Hong Kong for two years.
'We chose to take action near the Mid-Autumn Festival because all of them are quite active duringthis period,' an immigration department spokesman said Tuesday. Hong Kong's No. 2 official, chiefsecretary Carrie Lam, also said this week that central authorities in Beijing have assured city officialsthat they will assist them in cracking down on the trade.
In the meantime, city officials say that the government will add manpower at the border and thatthe MTR Corporation 0066.HK +0.85%, which runs the subway system, will institute tighterchecks to prevent oversized luggage from being transported on its system. The chairman of thecity's Tourism Board, James Tien, has additionally proposed capping the number of times multiple-entry visa holders can enter Hong Kong to once per day.
Beijing is also doing what it can to reduce tensions, last month back-pedaling on a plan that wouldhave further expanded access to tourist visas for an additional four million Shenzhen residents.
But resolving local anger over the existing influx of mainland tourists─some 28 million of whichvisited Hong Kong last year─won't be easy. The city's economy relies heavily on such visitors, which have helped boost its retail sector in recent years and also driven up the rent.
'It's not just a political issue, but also one concerning real questions about who benefits from thishuge growth in visitors,' says Mr. Cheung. 'And ultimately it's Hong Kong's big landlords andtycoons in real estate who benefit tremendously, not ordinary people living in those border areas.'
对很多中国人来说，这个周末的中秋节意味着各式月饼、精美大餐以及合家团圆。对于中国南方城市深圳的“水客”来说，其意义不止于此：这是个忙碌的时节。
随着中秋节的临近，成千上万的内地一日游旅客涌入毗邻深圳的香港，大批量购买龙虾、月饼等高价美食，过境后在内地以更高的价格转手卖掉。香港汇率划算，所以吸引了很多追求更低价格、更高质量保证的内地消费者。此外，有了可以多次进入香港的旅游签证，深圳居民可以很方便地进出香港，且次数不限。
很多香港居民对水客深恶痛绝。他们指责这些人推高了奶粉、牙膏等一切商品的价格，同时将靠近深港边境的地铁站搞得拥挤不堪。在Facebook的一个页面上，港人贴出了“水客”和他们装满商品的手推车的照片，并附带措辞激烈的说明文字。一个帖子写道，“无耻蝗虫水货佬皮箧装四只龙虾走私回国”。“蝗虫”是当地人贬低前往香港购买更优质产品、服务的内地游客的话。
香港大学(University of Hong Kong)研究陆港关系的张赞贤说，虽然香港人对内地水客的不满已经持续多年，但这个问题已经达到了一个临界点。今年以来香港与内地的矛盾一直在发酵，原因除了很多内地人到香港生子、购房以外，还包括很多香港人觉得今年7月宣誓就职的新特首与北京走得太近。
为平息港人的愤怒，香港政府一直在打击水客。与其他访港游客一样，这些人原本不应该在香港从事商务活动。香港官员说，过去一周内，香港有关部门逮捕了160名年龄在22岁至60岁之间的广东水客。其中八人分别被关押两个月，且两年内不得进入香港。
入境事务处一位发言人周二说，我们选择在中秋节临近的时候行动，是因为他们在这段时期全都非常活跃。港府二号人物、政务司司长林郑月娥本周也说，中央政府已向香港官员保证，将协助香港打击走私。
与此同时，香港官员表示政府将在边境增加人手，管理地铁系统的香港铁路有限公司(MTRCorporation)也将加强检查，防止超大件行李通过地铁运输。香港旅游发展局主席田北俊也提出了限制多次入境签证持有者每天入境次数的想法。
北京方面也在采取措施缓和矛盾。根据原来的一个计划，深圳又将有400万居民获得多次入境签证，但这个计划在上个月收回。
但目前已经有大量内地游客入港，去年访港人数就达到了2,800万左右，化解港人对他们的愤怒并不容易。香港经济严重依赖这些游客，他们在近几年提振了香港的零售业，也推高了当地的房租。
张赞贤说，这不只是一个政治问题，也是一个旅客数量如此大幅增长让谁受益的切实问题；归根到底，获得巨大利益的还是香港的大地主和地产富豪，而不是居住在口岸地区的普通人。
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