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Comment by mathattack | Hacker News Reader

Forgive my being naive, but isn't HK part of China? Why is it the rest of the world's problem? If China wants to mess up one of the world's great cities, it's their right. If the US wants to mess up New Orleans, it's not for other countries to intervene.

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That's probably not the best analogy. Because of the tensions between the city and its state, the following might be more apt.

Bilbao is a part of Spain, Barcelona is a part of Spain, Seville is a part of Spain (Spain has had to deal with a lot of pro-independence populations), Donetsk is a part of Ukraine, Grozny is a part of Russia, London is a part of the UK (they did seem pretty unhappy about the vote...), Lhasa is a part of China, Taipei is a part of China/Taiwan (unique in currently being independent), Quebec is a part of Canada, San Juan is a part of the US.

If a city doesn't want to be part of its encompassing political state, then it absolutely has the right to treat with rest of the world in an attempt to realize those goals. And the rest of the world has a right to respond however they feel appropriate.

Unlike New Orleans, Hong Kong was not a part of its current country just 19 years ago, but was under the control of Britain. It's also one of the world's most important financial centers. So it is deeply connected to the outside world and its existence and current status are owed entirely to outside forces and agreements with them.

Hong Kong may be a part of China but China does not own the people of Hong Kong like some sort of property.

They never chose to be part of the British empire... Which gave them back to China.

True, but they didn't choose to leave it either. Britain had agreed 100 years earlier to return HK to China and kept its promise.

Really HK should have become independent, but no doubt China would still claim it as theirs.

Actually, the 100 year lease was only for the New Territories, which make up the bulk of Hong Kong's territory, but only about half its population; Hong Kong Island and Kowloon were fully annexed by Britain. However, Britain decided it couldn't sustain Hong Kong without the New Territories, and that's part of why it was returned to China at the same time.

Did they have even have a choice under Britain control? Nowadays at least you hear the voice

Yes, they were eventually self-governing under the British and were British citizens from 1904 onwards. Though it was a long and winding transition from a colony to a self-governing territory.

>isn't HK part of China?

Well, both yes and no. That's kind of the problem. China and HK is kind of a bit like the US and Puerto Rico, except that all the details are different, obviously.

The Chinese government agreed to leave the Hong Kong legal system alone until 2047 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Basic_Law).

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