(Post)coloniality as a Chinese state of exception1

Abstract

The recent trend of class polarization in Hong Kong began in the 1990s and has continued unabated after the handover of the city-state to China. It has often been pointed out that this trend, as reflected in the growth in income inequality and the demise of the middle class, is a result of Hong Kong's structural transformation from an export-led manufacturing power to a business service-based economy. The restructuring of the economy is indeed fundamental but I will argue that this is not a ‘natural’ but a mediated process conditioned by the postcolonial ruling elites’ insistence on a development strategy originating in colonial governance. The rise of Donal Tsang Yam-kuen as the second Chief Executive and the continuing political influence of other former colonial administrators reveal a key feature of post-1997 Hong Kong up to the present moment—the persistence of colonial governmentality in the postcolonial era. Drawing on the works of Giorgio Agamben, Wang hui and Aihwa Ong, I will suggest that this specific form of re-unification reflects the normalization of Hong Kong as an ‘exception’ within the Chinese state-system.