Hong Kong has been a part of China since 1997, under the policy of "one country , two systems." There are various views of this system within Hong Kong society. Within the political spectrum, the Pro-Beijing camp appears to concentrate on the "one-country" dimension, where Hong Kong will slowly integrate into China while promoting and endorsing the policies of the Central Government as a guarantee of stability and growth.
The pro-democracy camp, the emphasis is on the "two systems" strategy, where Hong Kong will aspire to establish more democratic institutions and uphold freedoms and human rights to achieve stability while recognizing that it is a part of China and therefore has an duty to cooperate with it.
The terms agreed for the transition between the governments included a set of assurances for the post-transfer preservation of the different economic , political and legal structures in Hong Kong, and the further creation of the Hong Kong political system with a aim of democratic rule.
Controversial initiatives like the Individual Visit Scheme and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Connection have been seized as focal points of discontent. In 2011, others argue that after the Hong Kong government struggled to compel the enforcement of Article 23 of the Basic Law into the law, Beijing's comparatively hands-off attitude to Hong Kong has shifted significantly. This view holds that the strategy of the PRC is aimed at trying to dissolve the boundary between Hong Kong and the rest of China. Some representatives of the mainland China government have adopted increasingly strong rhetoric, perceived to be attacking the political and legal systems of Hong Kong.
2014 the Central People's Government issued a study arguing that Hong Kong 's judiciary would be subordinate to the government and not independent of it. Article 23 and the Sino-British Joint Declaration guarantee the advancement of Hong Kong's electoral system towards universal suffrage but gradual progress has been resisted by the more pro-democracy sections of the Legislative Council. The so-called Pan-Democrats had adopted an all-or-nothing strategy by the time the central government stepped in with a view to defeating any hope of progress in time for elections in 2008 to 2018.
Hong Kong is also a multi-ethnic city with distinct cultural values than those kept by the Chinese government and other people on the mainland in relation than ethnicity, languages , and cultures. The cultural and economic disparities are commonly seen as the primary cause of the Hong Kong-China dispute. Tension has been caused by the disparities between people in Hong Kong and China such as language, as well as the large increase in number of visitors to China.
According to statistics provided by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, since the implementation of the Individual Visit Scheme on 28 July 2003, the number of mainland visitors increased from 6.83 million in 2002 to 40.7 million in 2013. The conflict concerns issues relating to resource allocation between China and Hong Kong people in various sectors, such as healthcare and education.