Hong Kong citizens’ first wave of mass emigration to western countries occurred during the late 1980s to the early 1990s, before the former British colony was returned to China in 1997. The Chinese communist regime waged numerous political campaigns to wipe out the landlords and capitalists in mainland China shortly after it seized power in 1949. Frightened by the bloody class struggles in China, many rich families in Hong Kong decided to leave their motherland, believing that even an unfamiliar foreign land would be a safer place to live than Hong Kong after being handed over to China.
Those who decided to stay hoped that Beijing would keep its promise that Hong Kong would be ruled under a “One Country Two System” framework, and its autonomous status would remain unchanged for 50 years.
