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Abstract
This article explores how Hong Kong has exercised political influence on China since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, and tries to comprehend such seemingly impossible influences by reinterpreting the concept of sovereignty. It argues that the British Hong Kong existed as a ‘reference society’ for China's modernization and helped to change Chinese perceptions of capitalism. As this resulted in Chinese recognition of the legitimacy of Hong Kong's colonial institutions, which were featured with political legacies of civic freedom and the rule of law, it also reveals the institutional dimension of sovereignty. Secondly, the information flow from Hong Kong to China reflects a communicative (in contrast to coercive) nature of sovereignty, which highlights Hong Kong's central position in the Chinese world of information. Thirdly, Hong Kong's ongoing democratization challenges Chinese authoritarianism through societal interactions that are beyond state control. Conceptually, in this article, state sovereignty is argued as being something fluid and constantly reshaped in everyday practice with institutional, informative, and interactive dynamics; practically, it attempts to find some remaining ‘silver lining’ to the growing authoritarian Chinese clouds above Hong Kong as reversing the logic of examining external factors in democratization.
Acknowledgements
The results of the research discussed in this article were previously presented on different occasions, including at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Durham, the University of Cambridge, National University of Australia, and, as the China Chair inaugural lecture, at the University of Victoria, Canada. The author is grateful to the institutions and individuals that provided the opportunities for presentations and discussions and to the audiences from whom he received valuable feedback. The comments from two anonymous reviewers of The Pacific Review were especially helpful in improving the article, though the author takes sole responsibility for the arguments and any remaining errors. Thanks are also extended to Fenwick Lansdowne for his editing of the language.
Guoguang Wu, gained a Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University, and now holds the Chair in China and Asia-Pacific Relations at the University of Victoria, Canada, where he also teaches in the Departments of Political Science and History. With his research interests focusing on the politics of transition in Greater China and China's external relations in the post-Cold War era, he is author, co-author, and editor of sixteen books, and author of numerous articles that have recently appeared in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Social Research, and Third World Quarterly.
Notes
1. An interview with a former assistant to Hu, 16 August 2001, Beijing; and an interview with a former policy advisor to the national leadership, 23 August 2001, Beijing.
2. Interviews of legislative staff of Guangdong Province and Guangzhou City, 27 March 2001, Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou.
3. For different concepts of ‘sovereignty’ and the definitions of ‘international legal sovereignty’ and ‘Westphalian sovereignty,’ see Krasner (1999, esp. Ch. 1).
4. For such propaganda and its political importance in communist states, see, for instance, CitationKenez (1985); for the Chinese case, see, for example, CitationCheek (1995) and CitationChang (1997); for its continuity and change during the reform period, see CitationLynch (1999).
5. The Chinese title of the magazine is Nanfeng chuang.
6. Foreign Trade 1984: IV-11.
7. For example, Hong Kong plays a significant role in trans-shipment of textile exports from China to the United States (CitationMoore 2002).
8. This, ziyou xing in Chinese, is the term the Hong Kong press uses, while the mainland terms the same tourism as ‘individual tours’ (geren xing).
9. Ming Bao [The Mingpao Daily], 28 August 2002; also, Xinhua News Agency.
10. Ming Bao, 13 October 2003.
11. Accessed at http://news.bbc.co.hk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_4090000/newsid_4098900/4098984.stm, 23 Aug 2007.
12. For the meaning of the democratic ‘opening’ of authoritarian regimes, see CitationO'Donnell and Schmitter (1986: Ch. 3).
13. For the classic distinction between political liberalization and democratization, see CitationDahl (1971), and CitationO'Donnell and Schmitter (1986). The concept of ‘liberalization’ used here follows the definition contributed by O'Donnell and Schmitter, p. 7.
14. Surveys show that public opinion on quality of life and governance improved considerably after Tung Chee-hwa's resignation. Hong Kong's economic indicators are now considerably above those for 1997, though public satisfaction with life in Hong Kong has yet to achieve pre-1997 levels. See Hong Kong Transition Project, accessed at http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/∼hktp, 23 Aug. 2007.