纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英通过高才通计划涌入香港的中国内地人为何而来

To some foreign expatriates, Hong Kong has lost its appeal as an international city and no longer feels like home since Beijing took a heavier hand in its governance. But for many former mainland Chinese like Angelina Wang, it has become a more attractive place to live and work.

对一些外籍人士来说，自从中央政府更多地介入香港的治理，这座城市已失去了作为国际大都市的吸引力，让他们不再觉得这里是家。但对许多像安吉丽娜·王（音）这样的内地人来说，香港已变成一个更有吸引力的生活和工作地点。

Ms. Wang, in her early 30s, was feeling stuck in her job at a state-owned finance company in Shenzhen, a mainland city just across the border, when she read about a Hong Kong visa for professional workers. She quickly applied. As soon as she landed a job in Hong Kong — at higher pay — she told her boss that she was quitting and moved there.

王女士30岁出头，曾在毗邻香港的内地城市深圳的一家国有金融公司工作，在觉得事业已到尽头时，她读了一条有关香港向专业人士发放通行证的消息。她很快就递交了申请。在香港找到一份薪水更高的工作后，她马上告诉上司，自己要辞职搬到香港去。

“Salary in Hong Kong is higher than that in Shenzhen,” Ms. Wang said. “A lot higher.”

“香港的工资比深圳高，”王女士说。“高多了。”

Ms. Wang was among about 55,000 mainland Chinese who have been granted this new “top talent” visa since December 2022. Hong Kong’s semiautonomous status within China means that Chinese citizens need visas to live and work in the city.

自2022年12月以来，已有约5.5万中国内地居民拿到了香港新设立的“高端人才”通行证，王女士就是其中之一。香港在中国的半自治地位意味着中国公民在香港生活、工作需要通行证。

Among visa holders now working in Hong Kong, many were employed in finance, information technology and commerce services, according to a survey by the city government in November. They had a monthly median income of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars, or about $6,400, more than twice the median income in Hong Kong.

据香港政府去年11月的一项调查，目前持通行证在香港工作的人中，许多人受雇于金融、信息技术和商业服务行业。他们的月收入中位数为五万港元（约合6400美元），是香港收入中位数的两倍多。

Mainland Chinese interviewed by The New York Times cited several reasons for seeking the visa. Some said Hong Kong provided better pay and career opportunities, as well as better schools, greater freedom, and greater respect for women and people who are L.G.B.T.Q.

接受《纽约时报》采访的中国内地人士给出了申请这类通行证的几个原因。一些人说，香港提供了更好的薪酬和职业机会，还有更好的学校、更大的自由，以及对女性和LGBTQ群体的更多尊重。

The wave of working professionals is a welcome development for Hong Kong. Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the city in 2020 in response to pro-democracy protests, and on Tuesday the Hong Kong government enacted another security law that gave the authorities even more power to punish dissent. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong rolled out some of the world’s toughest travel restrictions, hurting its economy. About 200,000 people left the city from the middle of 2019 to the end of 2022, according to city figures. The population has since ticked up by about the same amount to 7.5 million.

对香港来说，大批专业人士的到来是一个值得欢迎的发展势态。作为对香港民主抗议活动的回应，中央政府2020年对香港实施了涉及范围广泛的国家安全法，本周二，香港政府颁布了另一部安全法条例，赋予当局更大的惩罚异见人士的权力。香港在新冠病毒大流行期间实行了一些世界上最严格的旅行限制，损害了当地经济。据香港政府的数据，从2019年中到2022年底，约有20万人离开香港。香港人口在那之后有大约相同数量的增长，恢复到了750万。

The visa program that Ms. Wang applied to, called the Top Talent Pass Scheme, was designed to appeal worldwide. So far 95 percent of the applications have come from mainland China. The visa lasts for two years and can be extended as long as the holder remains employed by a local company or is self-employed by the time the visa expires.

王女士申请的是“高端人才通行证计划”，该计划的目的是吸引世界各地的人才来港。到目前为止，95%的申请者来自中国内地。通行证有效期两年，只要持证人在通行证到期时仍受雇于当地公司或自雇，就可延长有效期。

The top talent visa is the easiest visa for mainland Chinese professionals to obtain. Visa holders don’t have to be employed when they arrive. They can qualify by having either a bachelor’s degree from one of the world’s top 185 universities or an annual income over $320,000.

高端人才通行证是内地的专业人士最容易拿到的长期通行证。申请者无需先在香港找到工作，只需满足申请资格，比如从排名世界前185的大学之一获得学士学位，或年收入在250万港元（或等值外币）以上。

One factor propelling mainlanders to seek the Hong Kong visa is China’s economy, which is experiencing a sharp real estate downturn. Ms. Wang, who works as a risk manager, said she was making better money in Hong Kong.

驱动内地居民寻求香港通行证的因素之一是，中国经济受房地产行业拖累，增长速度正在急剧放缓。王女士在香港的工作是风险管理，她说在香港挣的更多。

Another attraction is Hong Kong’s open financial system, which provides more appealing job opportunities for people who work in banking or finance.

另一个吸引力是香港开放的金融体系，这为从事银行或金融工作的人提供了更有吸引力的就业机会。

In the eyes of Chang Liang, a fund manager from Shanghai working in Hong Kong with a top talent visa, access to global markets offers advantages for people in his field.

来自上海的基金经理常亮（音）现在持高端人才通行证在香港工作，在他看来，能进入全球金融市场为他这个领域的人提供了优势。

“My business requires me to travel overseas frequently,” he said, and it’s easy to catch flights from Hong Kong. “The ease for travel is the major reason for my application for the Hong Kong visa,” he added.

“工作需要我经常去海外旅行，”他说，而且从香港飞其他地方很容易。“旅行的便利是我申请香港通行证的主要原因，”他补充道。

Hong Kong’s schools are another draw for mainland Chinese. Three-quarters of 1,200 workers with various visas who were surveyed last fall by the Hong Kong Top Talent Services Association planned to enroll their children in Hong Kong schools. They said they believed that the schools offered a better education than their children’s schools on the mainland, with a stronger focus on English learning.

香港的学校是吸引内地居民的另一个因素。据香港高才通人才服务协会去年秋天对1200名持各种通行证在港工作的人进行的调查，75%的人打算让孩子在香港的学校念书。他们说，他们认为香港的学校比内地学校能提供更好的教育，更注重英语学习。

About 36,000 children of top talent visa holders have been granted dependent visas to live in Hong Kong, according to the latest government data.

据政府的最新数据，约有3.6万名高端人才通行证持有者的子女已拿到了让他们在香港居住的家属通行证。

On the social media platform Xiaohongshu, conversations with the hashtag “transferring to a new school in Hong Kong” have been viewed over eight million times.

社交媒体平台小红书上“转学到香港新学校”的话题标签浏览量已超过800万次。

Another talent visa holder, Elsa Chen, who is in her late 30s, landed a job as a brand specialist at a Hong Kong firm. She was planning to bring her 6-year-old son from Foshan, a midsize city in Guangdong Province, because of the schools.

将近40岁的艾莎·陈（音）也拿到了高端人才通行证，在香港一家公司找到了一份品牌策划工作。她打算把她六岁的儿子从广东佛山带到香港来，原因也是为了学校。

“His class is packed with more than 50 students, but in Hong Kong, an average class has only about 20 students,” she said.

“他现在的班上有50多名学生，但香港的一个班平均只有20名左右的学生，”她说。

Apart from citing tangible differences between Hong Kong and mainland China, several holders of top talent visas spoke of less visible ones, like the rule of law.

除了提到香港与内地让人感觉得出来的不同外，几名拿到高端人才通行证的人也提到了不太看得见的差异，例如法治。

As a British colony, Hong Kong was long allowed to exercise a high degree of autonomy over its governance and laws — a system that China promised to continue after Britain handed over control in 1997. This status has come under question in the past several years. Still, some of the migrants said they saw Hong Kong as an escape from mainland China.

香港曾是英国殖民地，在很长一段时间里在治理和司法上享有高度自治权，英国1997年将香港主权交还给中国时，中国曾承诺让香港继续保持半自治状态。香港的这个地位已在过去几年里受到怀疑。尽管如此，一些来自内地的人说，他们仍将香港视为逃离中国内地的去处。

Phoebe Ho, 27, said she had faced frequent sexual harassment in her job as a marketing officer at a major state-owned company in China. She felt unable to push back. She got the visa hoping to broaden her career options and find a better work culture.

现年27岁的菲比·何（音）说，她在中国一家大型国有企业担任营销主管时经常遇到性骚扰的问题。她觉得没有能力反抗。她申请高端人才通行证是希望扩大自己的职业选择，并找到更好的工作文化。

Ms. Ho, who is lesbian, also noted that Hong Kong recognizes the rights of gay partners, even though it does not officially recognize same-sex marriage.

何女士是女同性恋者，她还指出，香港承认同性伴侣的权利，尽管还没有正式承认同性婚姻。

Will Wu, a banker from northern China, decided to leave China during the harsh Covid lockdown in 2022. He initially hoped to emigrate to Canada, but moving to Hong Kong under the top talent visa was easier.

来自中国北方的银行工作人员威尔·吴（音）是在2022年严格的疫情封控期间决定离开的。他最初的希望是移民加拿大，但申请高端人才通行证来香港更容易些。

“If China is a big ship, then Hong Kong is a lifeboat,” Mr. Wu said.

“如果说中国是一艘大船，那么香港就是一个救生艇，”吴先生说。

He did not get as big a salary boost in Hong Kong as he had hoped, moving into another finance job, but he still thinks the move was worth it. Hong Kong, he said, “is not a particularly free place, but you know people here share an ideology that respects law.” He hopes to stay long enough to become a permanent resident, which typically takes seven years.

他在香港找到了另一份金融工作，尽管薪水没有像他期望的那样大幅增长，但他仍认为来香港值得。他说，虽然香港“不是一个特别自由的地方，但大家知道这里的人都有尊重法律的意识”。他希望能在香港住上足够长的时间，让他能变成永久居民，这通常需要七年时间。

The ordeal of Covid was also the last straw for Luka Liu, a logistics specialist, and his wife, Lorraine Liu, an accountant. The couple, both 27, had been thinking about leaving China. They had grown tired of having to attend Communist Party study sessions at their workplaces, a common activity in both the public and private sectors in recent years.

对物流专家卢卡·刘（音）和从事会计工作的妻子洛琳·刘（音）来说，新冠疫情的磨难也是压垮他们的最后一根稻草。这对现年27岁的夫妇一直在考虑离开中国。他们对单位的党组织学习活动早已感到厌烦，这种学习近年来在国营和民营部门都很常见。

But the authorities in Hong Kong continue to hew closer to Beijing’s rules. In February, they added a new national security assessment as part of the visa application process to ensure that people they define as a threat to Hong Kong cannot enter.

但香港当局继续向中央政府的规定靠拢。今年2月，当局在通行证申请中新增加了国家安全评估，以确保不让其所谓对香港构成威胁的人入境。

“If our conversation today is being monitored, or we are interrogated by our company or community, we won’t hesitate to take our passports to go anywhere with freedom,” Mr. Liu said.

“如果我们今天的对话被监听，或者我们被公司或社区询问的话，我们会毫不犹豫地拿着护照到自由的地方去，”刘先生说。

“You can stop me from speaking out,” he added, “but you can’t change what I think and do.”

“他们可以不让我说话，”他补充道，“但他们不能改变我的想法和做法。”