A crapload of capital tends to statistically attract the best programmers. Some of the biggest problems to solve/employers being there, ditto.
In other words, my comment wasn't about born and raised SV VC/programmers. It was about VC/programmers working in SV.
SV-based entrepreneurs are already going to places like Austin and Portland. It takes time.
It would quicker if we get 3 million people situated in an abstract region of US since the critical mass to get the ball rolling would already have been achieved. It would be a challenge, but not for the reasons you've dilineated.
But that's my point. The success of HK businesses also relies on the location (and it's special status).
I think these types of regions can be created elsewhere but I totally see your point.
So this new territory could undercut every US-based port on tariffs, then ship everything to the USA consumer anyway? I don't see anyone agreeing to that deal.
Not many special "brilliant entrepreneurs". Just regular ole entrepreneurs taking advantage of the specific spot HK was in, and the specific relationship between Britain and China for global trade.
Merely bring the same people elsewhere would accomplish no great miracle.
It's not like taking SV-based VCs and programmers into e.g. Oklahome (where they'd just make a new hotspot, since their skills are carried with them).
It's more like taking the people in the tourist industry of Miami and moving them to Maine. It just wont work as well, since it was all about location in the first place...