Perhaps it's my western guilt talking but whenever the FDH issue arises it just feels like we are (perhaps inadvertently) supporting some kind of apartheid. I don't see why these people should get treated differently to us.
If the government here fears an influx of people from poorer Asian nations then it should stop exploiting that source of cheap labour.
In the case of applying for PR, there is a very clear set of guidelines published by HK.gov which apply to all applicants. Up to now it's been straightforward to interpret those guidelines, however now the Gov is using phrases like "concrete steps" which COULD be applied to non-DFH applicants in the future. Expats never had to consider what the hell "concrete steps" meant before. Maybe by the end of this there will be an addendum to the guidelines, applicable to everyone, but intended to keep 99% of FDH from acheiving PR status...