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Hong Kong Can No Longer Import Black Clothes, Including Black Underwear, From China

Time to switch colours.

The Chinese government is trying to ban the export of black clothing to Hong Kong from mainland China in an attempt to curb the ongoing pro-democracy protests

According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), the pro-democracy unrest in Hong Kong has gone on for more than four months.

From the beginning, the protesters have adopted black T-shirts, black jeans, and black sneakers, often paired with a black face mask, as their uniform.

Image via EPA-EFE/South China Morning Post

Over the past few months, Guangdong-based courier companies issued notices that mainland Chinese customs required them to halt delivery of certain items

The first notice issued in July included items often used by protesters such as yellow helmets, yellow umbrellas, flags, flagpoles, poster banners, gloves, masks, black T-shirts, metal rods, fluorescent tubes, and bludgeon clubs.

A more recent notice that was issued in September came with a longer list of banned items that included certain foodstuffs, liquid, powder, gases, big machines, wrist bands, towels, safety vests, speakers, amplifiers, trestles, walkie-talkies, drones, black shirts and other clothing, torches, binoculars, and even remote-controlled toys.

Image via Getty Images/The Sun

SCMP investigated the extent of the ban by contacting a courier company based in Beijing, China

A worker at the company said that only black clothing was not allowed to be shipped to Hong Kong, while other colours were allowed.

"All goods mailed to Hong Kong will be severely investigated. So all goods to Hong Kong will take around two days more than usual to mail," he said.

Image via AFP/The Sun

As usual, Twitter users had a lot to say about the issue

This user found that even black underwear was not exempted from the ban.

A user suggested that the protesters change their uniform colour to red.

Image via Twitter @limlouisa

While this user wondered what would happen if the Hong Kong protesters ran out of colours to change their clothing.

Image via Twitter @limlouisa

The months-long protest began with a now-withdrawn extradition bill that sparked anger amongst Hong Kong citizens:

Here are more stories on the Hong Kong protests:

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