Comments by "canto_v12" (@canto_v12) on "'Freedom swimmers' : The people who risked it all to flee to Hong Kong" video.

So many of these stories from the early days of the PRC, when conditions were abhorrent, people were starving and social order was arbitrary. The younger generation in China will hopefully never go thru what their parents and grandparents did. Nobody deserves that life.
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@elhector83 Do you have a source? My friends from mainland China all know about the Great Leap Forward and the failures of the early Communist era.
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This was nearly half a century ago when China was dirt poor with failed economic policies. Immigration into Hong Kong peaked around 10-15 years ago and has been on the decline since.
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Every method of illegal border crossing was dangerous. Some braved the waters and sharks of Shenzhen Bay, others braved the fortified land border. Looking at Shenzhen today, it's unbelievable the things people had to go through just 40 years ago, for a shot at a decent life.
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The bulk of these swimmers did so in the 60s thru 80s when China was mired in abject poverty and political chaos. People these days generally don’t see it necessary or even appealing to make that swim, and those who do would hire illegal vessels.
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China was absolutely poor, by any measure, until around 2000-2010, and it was abjectly so in the 1970s and 80s. That's why so many people had nothing left, and swam for the opportunity at a better life in Hong Kong. Immigration of mainland Chinese into Hong Kong peaked in the early 2000s-2010 and has been on the decline for some years now.
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@Blindswordsman1994 You're speaking as if China before the Communist Party was a happy paradise. Actually, China has been on the verge of starvation since the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, having completely missed the Industrial Revolution. Pre-PRC China was an absolute sh*thole and yes, the early Communist era was even worse, but it has come a long way.
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