Right to make the city their home sets Hongkongers apart

Hong Kong people are often addressed as the "Hong Kong compatriots" by state leaders and officials. The term is not only used rhetorically in speeches, but also appears in official and legal documents.

But who are the Hong Kong people? How are they different from other Chinese nationals? These questions are essential to Hong Kong's high autonomy under one country, two systems.

The vast majority of Hong Kong people are ethnic Chinese. They are connected to China in some way - historically, culturally and socially. But does the law of identity only provide for the compatriots?

Hong Kong was first taken by the British as a free port servicing trade with China, instead of being a settlement colony. In the first century under British rule, the population was generally migratory and transient. People came for jobs or business opportunities, and were identified mostly by their race.

While the free port subscribed to the persuasion of economic laissez-faire, order was maintained by the English rule of law. Migration across the border was easy for the Chinese and control was lax. In 1950, a quota system for mainland immigrants was imposed.

In 1971, a legal category of "Hongkong belongers" - locally born British subjects or naturalised persons who were given unrestricted rights to land and stay - was introduced by the Immigration Ordinance. This came at a time of economic take-off, social transformation and the emergence of a sense of local belonging.