Hong Kong's political influence over China: institutional,informative, and interactive dynamics of sovereignty

Abstract

This article explores how Hong Kong has exercised political influence on China since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, and tries to comprehend such seemingly impossible influences by reinterpreting the concept of sovereignty. It argues that the British Hong Kong existed as a ‘reference society’ for China's modernization and helped to change Chinese perceptions of capitalism. As this resulted in Chinese recognition of the legitimacy of Hong Kong's colonial institutions, which were featured with political legacies of civic freedom and the rule of law, it also reveals the institutional dimension of sovereignty. Secondly, the information flow from Hong Kong to China reflects a communicative (in contrast to coercive) nature of sovereignty, which highlights Hong Kong's central position in the Chinese world of information. Thirdly, Hong Kong's ongoing democratization challenges Chinese authoritarianism through societal interactions that are beyond state control. Conceptually, in this article, state sovereignty is argued as being something fluid and constantly reshaped in everyday practice with institutional, informative, and interactive dynamics; practically, it attempts to find some remaining ‘silver lining’ to the growing authoritarian Chinese clouds above Hong Kong as reversing the logic of examining external factors in democratization.     

Terrorism,anti-terrorism and the normative boundaries of the US polity: The spatiality of politics after 11 September 2001

Both terrorism and governmental anti-terrorist actions affect spatial structures and their boundaries, such as the state and the distinction between public and private spaces. Those spatial structures also articulate the normative dimensions of human life, which include the ethical principles and constitutional rights that orient behaviour and thought. By affecting the spaces, places and scales of life, (anti-)terrorism potentially can generate a new normativity. A new normativity would be manifested in changes to spatial structures and thereby would indicate that the content of political rights like personal freedom had been changed in practice. This paper addresses the possible emergence of a new normativity via an examination of how spatial structures are affected—specifically, their permeability and plasticity—by terrorist and anti-terrorist activities within a US context.     

JISB Interview: The Responsibility to Protect

Abstract

Dr Aidan Hehir interviewed Dr Francis Deng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, in New York on 20 August 2009     

Reconceptualizing International Intervention: Statebuilding, ‘Organic Processes’ and the Limits of Causal Knowledge

This article examines the transformation in the conceptual understanding of international intervention over the last two decades. It suggests that this conceptual shift can be usefully interrogated through its imbrication within broader epistemological shifts highlighting the limits of causal knowledge claims: heuristically framed in this article in terms of the shift from policy interventions within the problematic of causation to those concerned with the management of effects. In this shift, the means and mechanisms of international intervention have been transformed, no longer focused on the universal application of Western causal knowledge through policy interventions but rather on the effects of specific and unique local and organic processes at work in societies themselves. The focus on effects takes the conceptualization of intervention out of the traditional terminological lexicon of International Relations theory and instead recasts problems in increasingly organic ways, suggesting that artificial or hubristic attempts at socio-political intervention should be excluded or minimized.     

主权财富基金性质相关问题研究

近年来,主权财富基金一直是公众关注的焦点。中外学者对于主权财富基金的研究多从公司治理入手,鲜有学者对主权财富基金的性质属性进行论述。主权财富基金的性质关系到其发展方向以及治理模式,具有重大的现实意义。本文以主权财富基金的性质为出发点。重点阐述其“新型国家资本主义属性”与“理性经济人”属性,在此基础上指出二者存在的逻辑悖论。文章通过分析认为主权财富基金应当坚持“理性经济人属性”优先原则,采用“去主权化治理模式”,推动主权财富基金海外投资的商业化,避免附带过多的政治主权色彩。     

Islamic reformation discourses: popular sovereignty and religious secularisation in Iran

Disputes over the outcome of the June 2009 presidential election in Iran rapidly developed into a contest about the legitimacy of the Islamic state. Far from being a dispute between religious and non-religious forces, the main protagonists in the conflict represented divergent articulations of state–religion relations within an Islamic context. In contrast to the authoritarian legitimisation of an Islamic state, the Islamic reformation discourse is based on secular-democratic articulations of state–religion relations. This article focuses on the ideas of four leading Iranian religious scholars who advocate a secular-democratic conceptualisation of state authority. Disputing the religious validity of divine sovereignty, they promote the principle of popular sovereignty based on Islamic sources and methods. This reformist conceptualisation is rooted in the notion that Islam and the secular-democratic state are complementary.     

江西农业合作化运动的回顾与反思

在全面贯彻落实党的十七届三中全会精神过程中,认真回顾与反思江西农业合作化运动,对我们今天实行农业合作化,推进农村改革有很大的启示。就江西省委对中央农业合作化道路决策的贯彻执行情况而言,江西农业合作化运动以1955年7月毛泽东严厉批判“右倾保守”思想为分界线,分为截然不同的两个阶段,呈现出从稳步推进到紧跟冒进的动态演进过程。从江西农业合作化运动的失误来看,超越当时的国情、省情,人为地加快合作化进程和拔高合作化形式必然会受到惩罚,蒙受损失。     

英国宪政的精髓:议会主权与司法独立相结合的宪政体制

英国作为创建近代宪政制度的开路先锋,既没有成熟的宪政模式可资借鉴,也缺乏系统的宪政理论以供指导。然而,英国宪政却在实践中运行顺畅、效果良好,并在总体上表现出平稳性与实用性的特征。造成这一现象的根本原因在于,议会主权与司法独立相结合的宪政体制。前者关乎国家的内政、外交及其国家治理,通过不同权力之间的配置制约王权;后者关乎社会秩序与正义,通过特殊的技艺理性,以看似顽固不变的改良方式维持着对于任何专断权力的制约。     

Reply to my critics

ABSTRACT

This paper offers an overview of the central argument of my book, Territorial Sovereignty, and replies to four critics.     

论全球化进程中的国家主权

全球化进程给传统国家主权理论带来了全方位和深刻的冲击 ,对主权理论和实践提出了挑战 ;但全球化加速下国家主权受到挑战甚至削弱这一基本事实不能成为否定主权国家存在和发挥作用的理由 ;主动参与全球化进程 ,加强合作与交流 ,建立国际政治经济新秩序 ,采取灵活、切实可行的方式维护国家主权和利益是发展中国家在全球化进程中的理性选择。