Hong Kong's international status

Abstract

This is an attempt to clarify some of the problems in analyzing Hong Kong's international status. It approaches the complex set of questions on the territory's international position by looking at three inter-related aspects: first, conceptual questions concerning Hong Kong's status as a non-sovereign international actor in the context of international relations theory; second, the nature of Hong Kong's involvement in international affairs; and finally, the problems that Hong Kong encounters as a result of recent global and regional changes. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's (SAR's) international status will become clear only after 1997. The extent to which Hong Kong can exist as a reversed form of the Jacksonian "quasi-state' as suggested by this article will ultimately be determined by the political and economic influences that China is prepared to exert on the territory. -from Author