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Comment by derefr | Hacker News Reader

> but dressing it up as “lots of ordinary folks agree with them” is pretty disingenuous

I wouldn't say it's disingenuous... given that there's nothing legally preventing mainland-Chinese from choosing to live in HK, and then being quoted as people who want "their" city back.

Odd to think, but HK is now experiencing a real Red Scare, the likes of which the US only ever imagined in the depths of paranoid delusion. There are real (CCP) Communists, living amongst the HK citizenry, nudging HK's democracy (such as it is) toward their agenda by appearing to stand for "public sentiment"!

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there's nothing legally preventing mainland-Chinese from choosing to live in HK

This is completely wrong.

Mainland-Chinese may only move to Hong Kong to reunite with family, and they have to apply for a One-Way Permit, which has a "quota of 150 people per day and the waiting time for spouses is currently 4 years": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China_P...

To even visit Hong Kong requires applying for an Entry-Exit Permit in person, and duration is typically limited to 7 days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit-Entry_Permit_for_Travelli...

I believe that mainland people have to apply for a special permit to even cross the border into HK. I would expect it to be even harder to live there as a mainlander. So while they may be posing as HK residents on Twitter, I don't think they are in reality.

How old is your knowledge? China changes fast - my impression was that it was quite straightforward to go to HK. At least for people in SZ...

Shenzhen is a special economic zone, which had its own border with mainland China until early 2018.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/21...

it's not a real boarder. and regardless the so called boarder was effectively gone since early 2000s.

> the likes of which the US only ever imagined in the depths of paranoid delusion

Back in 2012 I went to a few Occupy Wall Street protests and encampments, I was very surprised to see how many advocates for "real" communism - since nobody has done it correctly - really were hiding in the bushes the whole time.

(I did read up on this seemingly comical notion, and I can at least tell you that they're correct, communist countries have never gotten to level 2 which calls for abolition of the state, and all fail during the pitstop of centralized power.)

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