Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dangus 625 days ago
Should the people of North Dakota be able to take a vote and decide to become a Chinese province?

I mean, I completely empathize with their situation, but the fact of the matter is that the UK has even less of a claim to governance over the territory than China does. It’s physically connected to mainland China with no other countries or territories around.
1 comments
cscurmudgeon 625 days ago
> Should the people of North Dakota be able to take a vote and decide to become a Chinese province?

They have the moral right to do so.

But the ground reality is that many Chinese are becoming North Dakotans (Americans).

https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?g...

And many Hong Kongers are becoming British:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/07/ho...

link
dangus 625 days ago
Whether you have the moral right to do so is rather debatable. Morals are up to the individual.

I would say that it would be a major national security issue and detriment to everyone else in the country if a state was allowed to secede to another country, especially a foreign adversary.

In the United States nobody has the legal right to secede, even if a statehouse passes a law or holds a ballot vote on a constitutional amendment.

As far as emigrating and gaining legal status elsewhere that’s up to the individual.

link