A high degree of ambiguity: Hong Kong as an international actor after 1997

Abstract

With the reversion of sovereignty over Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997, a ‘high degree of autonomy’ has been promised for the new Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). An important test of this autonomy will be the degree to which the HKSAR government is allowed to maintain the wide range of international contacts and activities enjoyed by its colonial predecessor. For Hong Kong is arguably one of the most active non‐central governments operating in the international system in the 1990s. It engages in a wide range of international diplomacy and is a member of more international organizations than any other non‐sovereign government. If the government in Beijing and the HKSAR government maintain that degree of activism in the international community, it will be a concrete indication of China's attachment to the ‘one country, two systems’ formula. This paper examines Hong Kong's international role as the territory reverts to Chinese sovereignty. It does so by looking at Hong Kong's international activities from the perspective of the burgeoning literature on non‐central governments. Exploring the constitutional and political basis for Hong Kong maintaining its international role, it shows that the constitutional conditions for such a role are met. However, the paper also argues that these international linkages will pose a tempting target for politicization, and this, more than anything else, will put those activities at risk. Although there are substantial differences between Canada and China, lessons from the Canadian experience suggest that the way to ensure that Hong Kong continues to be enmeshed in the international system is to maintain a high degree of ambiguity about the HKSAR's international relations.