Rewards outweigh costs

Statistics from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department show that about 98 percent of mainland parents who give birth in Hong Kong plan to bring their children back to the mainland after delivery, principally because most parents say they are unable to make a living in Hong Kong.

Babies born in Hong Kong automatically qualify for the Hong Kong permanent residency and the advantages, particularly the social welfare system, it entails.

But such babies raised in Beijing will be unable to use the mainland's social welfare system because China does not allow its citizens to have dual citizenship.