good deal of ink has been spilled over the rise of a post-Westphalian politics, one less fettered by norms and practices centred on the state as the supreme power within its boundaries and the only international actors of consequence.2 A significant increase in the cross-border activities of non-central governments (NCGs) is an important element of the emergent post-Westphalian world. The literature on NCGs as cross-border actors has mainly centred on Western democracies, where the constituent governments of federal states and of European Union member states are assumed to be leading the way.3 The cross-border activities of Asian and authoritarian NCGs have not figured significantly. Yet, the governments of the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions (SARs) currently have more external affairs autonomy than most NCGs elsewhere. By 1999, they had, respectively, the third and seventh highest number of memberships in inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) among the world's non-sovereign governments.4 They stand out because the ten other non-sovereign territories with the highest membership rates were either states-in-waiting (Palestine), de facto associated states (Cook Islands, Niue,