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Hong Kong as the ‘Neoliberal Exception’ of China: Transformation of Hong Kong Citizenship Before and After the Transfer of Sovereignty

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Abstract

The formation of Hong Kong citizenship was under tensions and struggles after the change of sovereignty in 1997. In spite of the limited political and social rights, many incidents showed that the promised civil rights were declining. More importantly, subject to the intensified transborder population mobility of Chinese citizens, there were public discourses addressing that the social rights of Hong Kong citizens were threatened. Protests in response to the intensified transborder population mobility were found, with the rightist public discourses advocating to conserve the essences of Hong Kong citizenship. Being the neoliberal exception of China, Hong Kong is positioned to contribute for China by its market economy, as well as the relatively well-established socio-economic institution. However, as this article argues, in spite of the logic of exception, i.e. the zoning technology that the state deploys, the intensified transborder population mobility and economic activities between the neoliberal exception and the sovereign state can lead to the struggles and contentions concerning the citizenship of the former.

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Notes

  1. When Ong [42] discussed the zoning technology of China, she differentiated the “special administrative zone” like Hong Kong and Macao, and the “special economic zone” like Shenzhen, and Zhuhai, etc. in terms of their administrative autonomy. “Special administrative zone” is equivalent to “Special Administrative Region” while the latter is the official name.

  2. For example, with the effect of CEPA, the share of Hong Kong exports to China increased from 3% to 18% [19].

  3. The problem of ‘double-not children’ was originated from the final judgment by the Court of Final Appeal Director of Immigration v Chong Fung Yuen. According to the rule, Chong Fung Yuen had the right of abode based on the Article 24 of the Basic Law which mentioned that ‘the permanent residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong before or after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’.

  4. According to the figure of the Tourism Board, more than one million visits in Hong Kong in 2012 was related to parallel trading activities. And with the convenience of the ‘Multiple-entry’ permit, some parallel traders immigrated to Hong Kong for more than 20 times per day [43, 44].

  5. The data was retrieved on 21 April, 2016. See the website of Public Opinion Programme, The University of Hong Kong: https://www.hkupop.hku.hk/chinese/popexpress/ethnic/eidentity/poll/datatables.html

  6. The 13 major newspapers include Oriental Daily, Apply Daily, Sun Daily, Hong Kong Economic Times, Hong Kong Economic Journal, Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao, Ming Pao Daily, Sing Tao Daily, Sky Post, Metro, AM730, and Headline Daily.

  7. The social unrest in 1966 is also named Hong Kong 1966 Riots or Kowloon Riots. It was the series of disturbances and protests that lasted for three nights. One person was dead in the riots, and dozens were injured.

  8. Only Edward Leung (Hong Kong Indigenous) and Alvin Yeung (Civic Party) were regarded as the pro-democracy candidates in the by-election.

  9. Since 2015, various political groups and civil society organizations initiated the discussion about self-determination of the future of Hong Kong after 2047, which was literally the expiry date of the Basic Law, as well as One Country Two Systems. Even though they did not support of violent protest like the Hong Kong Indigenous did, nor did they claim themselves as ‘the localist’, ‘local’ was one of the keywords they articulated with when they raised the discussion. See Initium [23].

  10. For frame alignment, see Snow et al. [47], Benford & Snow [3].

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  1. School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong

    Gary Tang & Raymond Hau-yin Yuen

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Tang, G., Yuen, R.Hy. Hong Kong as the ‘Neoliberal Exception’ of China: Transformation of Hong Kong Citizenship Before and After the Transfer of Sovereignty. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 21, 469–484 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-016-9438-7

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