Government authorities in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) are grappling to find an answer to an influx of mainland women giving birth in the city, which is said to be draining public hospital maternity services.

But much to their dismay, they have yet to come up with a foolproof solution simply because the problem is far more complex than it appears to be.

Some data from previous years may give readers a rough idea of the exent of the problem. In 2005, Hong Kong recorded 57,100 births, with mainland women accounting for 19,538 of them. More than 12,000 babies were born to non-resident parents in the first nine months of 2006, a 20-fold increase over 2001.

Non-residents left behind millions of dollars in unpaid medical bills. Over the past five years, outstanding bills have risen to more than HK$200 million ($26 million), a fair chunk of it owed by mainland mothers.

Public discontent has prompted the government to search for a solution. Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee has warned that pregnant mainland women could be denied entry to Hong Kong if they used their visits for purposes other than tourism.

The Hong Kong Hospital Authority has, on its part, come up with a series of financial measures to discourage mainlanders from giving birth in the city. Under the new arrangement, non-resident women can now be charged up to HK$48,000 in hospital fees, instead of the earlier HK$20,000 fee.

Whether or not these and other measures would work is the subject of an ongoing debate. But to get the right answers, we would have to take a closer look at what exactly makes mainland women choose Hong Kong as the birthplace for their children.

The Basic Law, the constitutional document of China's most affluent city, grants right of abode to Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong. Once these children become Hong Kong residents, they are eligible for benefits ranging from medical care and social security to education. These are the kinds of public services that have long been the targets of criticism on the mainland.

But the disparity in the standards of public services in the two places can be leveled overnight simply by giving birth to a child in Hong Kong. And that perhaps is the greatest attraction for mainlanders. In a broader perspective, the mainland's one-child policy could also be a factor.

Those desperate to have a second, or even a third, child prefer footing a higher medical bill in Hong Kong to paying a fine on the mainland. When the incentives are so tempting, no technical measure could be more effective than tackling the problem at its legal root.

Back in 2001, the SAR government did try that by requesting the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), the only authority that can interpret the Basic Law, to explain the legislative intent of the relevant article that granted the right of abode to "Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong".

"Chinese citizens", the NPCSC clarified, are those whose fathers or mothers must have been lawfully settled or have the right of abode in Hong Kong at the time of their birth or at any later time.

By this account, mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong would have been just like any other consumers, paying for using the city's medical services. Hence, their offspring would not be entitled to the right of abode.

But the same year, the city's Court of Final Appeal ruled that Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong had the right of abode, regardless of whether their parents had settled in Hong Kong or possessed the right of abode.

Last month, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow flew to Beijing to seek help. But there is little mainland authorities can do when it is perfectly legal for pregnant women to travel overseas to give birth.

Email: zouhr@chinadaily.com.hk

(China Daily 01/05/2007 page10)