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endswapper

Acquiesce or move are not adequate options.

Bringing the matter to the public stage and attempting to hold Beijing accountable is the best available option.

Will this influence Beijing? I don't know, but I doubt it.

Will 10 or 100 instances like this, or disputes in the South China Sea identify Beijing as a bad actor? Yes.

I don't disagree with where you are coming from, but it sounds like you are endorsing giving up.

Matters such is this will take decades, now is not the time to give up for the Hong Kong or Chinese citizens that seek freedom.

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> Acquiesce or move are not adequate options.

Hong Kong is an amazing city, international and self-governing, competitive and self-funding-- in almost every way, it seems like a glimpse of the future; Tomorrowland.

However, its leverage to fight for its own sovereignty (or the rest of the world's leverage to fight on its behest), is extremely weak, and unable to grow. I fear that Hong Kong is a lost cause, which is extremely sad.

...In any case, I hope the idea of Hong Kong lives on, and we see more cities like this as we progress. One city isn't worth fighting a war over, especially because the lessons Hong Kong taught us show that we can make more Hong Kongs in the future.

Preserving emigration rights for HK citizens seems the most practical way to keep people safe.

> Acquiesce or move are not adequate options.

We live in an inadequate world.

(See also: ongoing US election, or Erdogan's purges in Turkey)

The point is that the options are not binary as proposed by the post I was responding to.

I'd argue the third option, which I proposed, is adequate, and the best if only because it includes hope over the long-term.

> Matters such is this will take decades, now is not the time to give up for the Hong Kong or Chinese citizens that seek freedom.

In decades Hong Kong as we know it won't exist anymore. In a century, maybe China will have it's Magna Carta movement. But the pendulum is swinging in the other direction right now.

By your definition, probably every Chinese is refugee. So how about opening your country's door? If you cannot do that, stop standing moral high ground.

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