香港城邦 Hong Kong City-State (1842~ )
A Brief History of City-state 城邦簡史
By Wan Chin 陳雲 著
Translated by Chapman Chen曾焯文 編譯
城邦是希臘的傳統，也是民主的根源，帕拉圖的《理想國》，亞里士多德的《政治學》，都以城邦為藍本。獨立國家主權是一六四八年威斯特發利亞條約（Treaty of Westphalia）之後的事，即規定一國有固定的領土和治權，不容外界干預。此前，根據希臘人的觀念，即使某城參與某帝國，但只要有自己的法律、議會、文官和法庭，就是城邦。古雅典城邦的中心是衛城（citadel），周邊是城區和鄉村。香港即使是中華人民共和國一部分，但有自己的法律、議會、文官和法庭，甚至有獨立的貨幣(independent currency)、護照、郵政(postal service)、海關、國際電話區號、國際組織締約權（例如香港比中國更早加入世貿組織）等等，即使中國不是聯邦制，但香港擁有的權力，比任何一個聯邦國家之一邦，甚至自治州（Freistaat; free state）、自治市（Freistadt; free city），來得更大。香港是城邦，無可置疑。甚至香港政治地理，也如古希臘城邦：維多利亞城（Victoria City）、九龍的城區及新界的鄉村。
Postcolonial colonial theories rarely employs the term, “city-state”, and when they do, they are usually referring to Singapore as a sovereign state, e.g. Amitav Acharya (2008) and Daniel Goh (2009). (In contrast, Wan Chin’s  On Hong Kong as a City-state precisely points out that Singapore, after becoming independent, has moved towards despotism and lost the city-state spirit of tolerance and freedom.) When a region, because of various reasons, cannot or should not go independent and does not want to be exploited, manipulated and assimilated by its metropole, city-state autonomy is unarguably the best choice.
According to Wan Chin (2011), city-state is a Greek tradition as well as the origin of democracy. Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics are all based on the idea of city-state. Independent sovereignty did not come into being until the Treaty of Westphalia, which stipulated that a country had a fixed territory, and did not permit interference from outside.
Before that, according to the Greeks’ conception, even if a city joined a certain empire, it would still be a city-state, provided that it had its own law, parliament, civil service, and court. The centre of the ancient city-state Athens was its citadel, surrounded by its urban and rural areas. Even though Hong Kong is part of People’s Republic of China, it has its own law, executive and legislative councils, civil service, judiciary, and even independent currency, passport, postal service, customs, international telephone code, membership of international organizations (e.g. HK joined WTO much earlier than China), etc. Even if China is not a confederation, the power possessed by Hong Kong is larger than one of the states of any federation, and even any free state or free city. Hong Kong is undoubtedly a city-state. Even the political geography of Hong Kong resembles an ancient Greek city-state – Victoria City, Kowloon urban area and New Territories rural area (Wan Chin 2011: 65). Wan Chin’s (2011) On Hong Kong as a City-state meticulous traces the origin and development of city-state in world history and explores the applicability of the concept to Hong Kong.
What is a city-state?
According to Wan Chin (2011),the concept comes from the Greek word, polis. The very name suggests that it is a synthesis of city and state. It is an autonomous entity with the city as its core. Sometimes it is independently sovereign but more often it is attached to a sovereign enity (usually an empire or a royal family) as a duchy or a military protection zone. Why are most city-states unable to go independent? It is because while a city-state is a place of commerce and trade with a self-sufficient ecology, including rivers, seas, forests, agricultural fields, etc., it has to rely on business transactions as well as support from the hinterland. That is why it cannot survive independently.
The administrative body of a city-state is composed of aristocratic business families, who cannot fight in battles. Thus it must depend on a regional royal family or an overseas power (e.g. an imperial colonizer). Hence, the citizens of a city-state must be good at making agreements and forming alliances with external powers, and must have sincere belief in honesty and rule of law, in order to earn the trust of the world (Wan Chin 2011: 67).
City-state comes from commerce and trade. European city-states are usually coastal mercantile ports.
Primary city-states originated from Greek metropolitan city-states along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Thebes, Athens, and Sparta). Following the example laid down by the Greek city-states, there arose a lot of other city-states -- city-states developed by forceful occupation as well as allied cities of mercantile autonomy. The former included city-states developed by Alexander the Great and city-states set up by the modern British colonizer. The latter included Scandinavian and central European Hanseatic League.
隨後，後繼的城邦眾多，有用軍事強行攻略而開發的城邦，也有商人自治的結盟城市，前者有古希臘亞歷山大帝開拓的城邦及現代英國殖民者設立的城邦，後者有北歐和中歐的漢撒同盟（德文Hanse； 英文Hanseatic League）。
During the ancient Greek period, with the offensive advance of Alexander the Great, Greek city-states extended along the sea route of trade, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Middle East, to Central Asia, right into Northern India. Historical remains of Greek city-states can still be seen in India and Afghanistan.
The other route extended to Europe, the Northern Sea and Baltic Sea, leaving behind the tradition of free city and free town in Europe (Wan Chin 2011: 68).
漢撒同盟 Hanseatic League
- City-state, Commerce and Capitalism
Mercantile autonomous cities of the early stage of capitalism were set up and administered by influential mercantile families, overseas merchants or settlers (e.g. regions where German and Danish merchants lived in compact communities), such as the Hanseatic League that thrived around the Baltic Sea between the 14th and the 16th Centuries.
十五世紀中葉之後，歐洲的國族建立運動（nation building）興起，主權國家開始用憲政法治、金融實力和軍事保護來主導資本主義，如尼德蘭（荷蘭）和聯合王國（英國）的出現，建立憲政國家和資本主義制度（法治、公共行政、股票交易所stock exchange之類）
After the mid-15th Century, nation building became popular in Europe. Sovereign countries, e.g. Netherland and the United Kingdom, began to direct capitalism by means of constitutional rule of law, financial prowess and military protection. And constitutional nations and capitalistic systems (rule of law, public administration, stock exchange, etc.) were built up.
十七世紀在波羅的海爆發的三十年戰爭（Thirty Years War 一六一八—一六四八），打擊了漢撒城市同盟，便使到威尼斯、不萊梅、漢堡、呂比克等城市在政治上衰落，不再成為強大的政治實體，然而，融入新興的共和國之後，依然繼續發揮經濟和文化作用。
The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), which broke out at Baltic Sea, dealt a severe blow to the Hanseatic League, such that cities like Venice, Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck declined politically and no longer remained strong political entities. However, incorporated into newly arisen republics, they continued to give play to their economic and cultural functions (Wan Chin 2011: 68).
上海法租界 Shanghai French Concession
- The Development of city-states in Asia is different from that in Europe.
During the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.) and the Period of Warring States (475-221 B.C.), feudal states and urban manor estates in China had a status resembling an European city-state.
After the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), there had been no European-style city-states in China until the emergence of HK in 1842. Subsequently, the Qingdao concession and the Shanghai concession appeared for a short time.
In the city-state of HK, British merchants and Chinese merchants and men of letters lived together in peace. Under the rule of Common Law exercised by the British colonial government, they could freely trade and form associations there, accumulate wealth, develop business at ease, and participate in local politics in the capacity of social elite or appointed legislator. Although the political status of HK merchants and intellectuals was not as high as that of their counterparts in European city-states, still HK has been an exception in Asian history (Wan Chin 2011: 69).
亞洲城邦 — 新加坡 City-states of Asia – Singapore
- Hong Kong: A Combination of Athens and the Hanseatic League
City-state is a European tradition. The two existing strong city-states of Asia – Singapore and Hong Kong – were both established by British colonial power. These two city-states resemble a combination of a Greek city-state set up by Alexander the Great and a mercantile city of the Hanseatic League.
The city-state of Singapore and the city-state of Hong Kong owe their establishment to British institutional civilization, public administration and capability of inducing cultural transformation, making it possible for Singapore to lead the South Sea and Hong Kong to be unrivaled in East Asia.
Transient city-states in Asia include the Qingdao concession (1897-1949) set up by Prussia and the French Shanghai concession (1845-1943). Both lost their political function and subsequently their cultural function during the Republican Period or after the CCP rose to power (Wan Chin 2011: 73).
- Hong Kong is the only city-state left in Asia
The primary city-states are the isolated city-states of Greece, followed by families of city-states or leagues of city-states. When a league of city-states reinforce their treaty (for example: the Hanseatic League formed a customs union), they become a nation or a confederate (such as Holland, Germany, North America and Canada).
However, there are also newly arisen nations which fail to maintain their city-state culture and decline in the middle, e.g. China and Malaysia.
When Muslim city-states resume unification of the state and the church to various degrees, they often lose their city-state tradition.
China retrieved concessions during the early Republican years. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took control of China, it deliberately repressed thee culture of these city-state concessions, persecuted city elite, exiled urban populations, so that the modern system, cultural values and municipal life style of these newborn city-states could not develop and spread. In fact, the entire country has been put under a totalitarian system.
As regards Malaysia, due to its dread of the financial prowess and ethnic Chinese population of the city-state Singapore, it kicked Singapore out of the Malaysia Federation such that both parties were harmed.
Back in the sixties, the Malaysian Federation began to move towards despotism and ethnic group rule (favoring indigenous Malaysians and discriminating against Chinese), running counter to the open and merging spirit of city-state.
Despite its advocacy of harmony among different ethnic groups, Singapore has had to struggle for survival among external opponents. Inevitably, it has adopted despotism. Now although it is slightly more open than before, it has not yet recovered the freedom and creativity of the early South Sea city-states (Wan Chin 2011: 78).
- The City-State Hong Kong and the Destiny of China
假若中國當局及國人之視野開闊，不想中華落入封閉殘暴的一體化統治，則今日兩岸四地分開統治的政體，各自保存特色及互相協調關係，也可締約為「中華邦聯」或「中華國協」（Chinese confederation），有自己區內的統一貨幣（如華圓Chinese dollar）及一致的外交政策。
If the China authorities and their countrymen are far-sighted and do not want the Chinese culture to be trapped in a close book of brutality and monotony, then the current individual political bodies of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and China, in maintaining their own characteristics and coordinating with each other, may also form an alliance known as Chinese confederation with a unified diplomatic policy and currency (such as Chinese dollar).
The history of Hong Kong as a modern history will go on and on without interruption. The most important part of this grand plan of reclaiming the Chinese world is Hong Kong’s 170 years of city-state resources (Wan Chin 2011: 79).
- Why is it necessary to reassert the city-state spirit of HK, 15 years after the transfer of it sovereignty to Communist China?
Subordination to China has not only failed to enable HK people to see any prospect or direction but also made HK at a loss in every respect.
Because Communist China itself is a pathetic country with bleak prospects, waiting for crises to break out. Having ruled “temporarily” for more than sixty years, the government of China is still a “revolutionary” government and the Party is still above the State. Real constitutional republicanism is not within the foreseeable future. Given the city-state civilization, rationality and tolerance of Hong Kong, it can only be matched by a constitutional republican system of government. Does its ending up in the hands of Communist China not mean defeat for both sides? (Wan Chin 2011: 91).
- Hong Kong’s Destiny: Will HK follow in Shanghai’s Footsteps?
China itself is internationally notorious and its officers profoundly corrupt. In contrast, HK can be of irreplaceable assistance to China in terms of raising funds externally, overseas investment, international experience and institutional reform.
As the CCP envies and dreads HK people, its bureaucrats can only indiscriminately follow the way in which the CCP dealt with the city-state Shanghai in the 1950s – disintegrating HK by reducing its functionality, exiling its communities, mixing its population with new immigrants, and sabotaging its city-state geography.
Communist China bureaucrats are trying to carry out patriotic education and teaching Chinese as a subject in Putonghua without regard to the fact that more than one half of the HK population are of a foreign nationality. Also, carried out in such a crowded place as HK, patriotic education can easily lead to exclusionism. Moreover, as the United States is paying close attention to changes in HK, once the critical point of Mainlandization of HK is reached and Hong Kong’s autonomy is compromised, America will withdraw special favors for HK (Wan Chin 2011: 91-92).
- Extension of the Transitional State with no Fear of the City-State Status
Hong Kong people are faced with two major outstanding issues. If they do not change their way of thinking, these two major outstanding are enough to bury HK.
- 香港是否需要憲政民主的中國做依歸？中國不民主，香港就是否無運行？Does HK really need a constitutional democratic China as its frame of reference? Does a non-democratic China necessarily mean no luck for HK?
- 香港的過渡身份，予香港人極大焦慮。香港非國亦非市，而是所謂特別行政區，香港的一國兩制又只能維持五十年不變，香港人不敢想像香港可以過渡到主權國家（香港獨立），那麼就只能過渡到成為中共治下一個直轄市了？The transitional status of HK has caused HK people a great deal of concern. HK is neither a country nor a city, but a so-called special administrative region. And HK’s “one country-two systems” can only remain unchanged for 50 years. HK people dare not imagine transition of HK to a sovereign country (an independent HK). So does that mean that eventually HK can only become an ordinary coastal city directly under the CCP?
The solution to these issues of HK is to recognize HK’s city-state history and city-state status. Compared with the ancient empire and the modern republic, the city-state can also maintain a long term of transition, although it is a transitional state. Hong Kong’s city-state condition is especially so.
Before China accomplishes constitutional republicanism and federalism (or any other system that permits regional autonomy), the Chinese government should allow the city-state of HK to continue its develop rather than hastily incorporate HK into the state of an ancient empire – contemporary Communist China is like an ancient imperial power (Wan Chin 2011: 92).
- Donald Tsang: Hong Kong Water, Hong Kong blood?
After the July 1st Mass Rally in 2003, HK Chief Executive C. H. Tung stayed in his office until 2005 when he stepped down on the pretext of illness and was replaced by Donald Tsang. In 2004, in order to win HK people’s confidence, Tsang said to the press, “I grew up drinking Hong Kong water and in my body flows Hong Kong blood. I will never betray Hong Kong!”
A city-state only cares about place of residence and value, but not family background and place of birth.
This statement of Tsang’s is a foreboding of HK ethnic politics as well as a repercussion of Hong Kong’s involvement in the China consciousness without comprehensive deliberation. Then in May 2006, he stressed that in appointing consultative committee members, the proximity of relationship would be carefully considered, which also ran counter to the city-state’s principle of only caring about talent and meritocracy.
The city-state consciousness of HK was shaken and drawn close to the unfamiliar nationalism of China. In order to pressurize Communist China and defend the right of universal suffrage as endowed upon HK people by the Basic Law, the legislator Wong Yuk Man, together with four other legislators resigned in 2010 and participated in the by-election on 16 May the same year. This is known as the Five District Referendum Movement, a movement of universal determination. Due to the local communists’ cold treatment and the local government’s purposeful obstructions, the voting rate was not high but still it showed that quite a few people believed that they shared the same destiny as townsfolk of the same city-state.
Moreover, Mainland pregnant women flocking to Hong Kong to give birth in order to acquire right of residence for their families and Mainlander visiting HK to speculate on milk power and bad manners on the part of tourists have aroused sentiments in Hong Kong against Mainland immigrants, who are even despicably called “locusts”.
In August 2011, overseas domestic helpers working in HK applied for judicial review, demanding that those who has worked there for seven years be granted right of residence in HK in accordance with the Basic Law. A group of HK people upholding their local birth and upbringing protested against the overseas domestic helpers’s application for judicial review.
In August 2011, Communist China Premier Li Ke Qiang visited University of Hong Kong, which led to Hong Kong police encroaching on university students’ right of demonstration. Again a group of middle-class people, stressing that they were born and brought up in Hong Kong, published an announcement on a local paper to support Hong Kong police’s resolute enforcement of law.
For both citizens for and citizens against the communists, for both Chief Executive and demonstrators on the streets, stressing one’s HK indigenousness has already become a regular gesture of representing local interests of Hong Kong and local justice. This indicates that Hong Kong has already inadvertently entered the stage of ethnic politics. This is inevitable as well as a problem generated by Hong Kong’s involvement in China nationalism. It has to be resolved, otherwise Hong Kong’s international cosmopolitan status and cultural setup will be compromised.
- Advocacy of City-State Spirit and Transformation of Ethnic Politics
The only way to resolve ethnic conflicts and promote ethnic integration rather than vicious exclusionism in HK is to reassert HK’s city-state spirit. This is the sole exit to the local consciousness of HK as well as the only solution to ethnic conflicts in HK (Wan Chin 2011: 94-96). ■