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Antony Huen
Opinion
Antony Huen

As the UK discusses an EU return, Hong Kong offers lessons

Like Hong Kong, which functions as a special administrative region of China, could the United Kingdom rejoin the European Union with a special administrative name?

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Workers remove a Union Jack flag, near the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as Big Ben, on May 14. Photo: Reuters
Antony Huen
Antony Huen is a senior lecturer in the School of English at the University of Hong Kong, director of the Creative Writing MFA and editor of Black Box Magazine.
The recent resignation of Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister has reignited a debate over the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit identity – and talk of rejoining the European Union. Over the past decade, has Britain’s decision to exit the EU returned the UK to its splendid isolation – or merely a splendid squalor?

It may seem a far-fetched idea but what if the UK were to become a special sovereignty within the EU? And in that case, what can post-Brexit Britain learn from Hong Kong, which has been designated a special administrative region within China?

Both the UK and Hong Kong are concoctions of territories pieced together over time. The three regions that make up Hong Kong today – Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories – were united across British colonial and modern-day Chinese histories. Since 1997, Hong Kong has found new life as a special administrative region, and is referred to as “China’s Hong Kong” or “Hong Kong, China”. Today, “Hong Kong” can refer to the island or the special administrative region, depending on the context.

Similarly, the UK is often referred to as “Britain” even though geographically and technically “Britain” refers only to the island of Great Britain, which comprises England, Wales and Scotland – but not Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.

Theoretically, could the UK re-enter the EU as a distinct member with a special administrative name? Could a “Europe’s UK” concept be explored?

Political decision-making can be intimately affected by geography, as illustrated in Tim Marshall’s bestselling book, Prisoners of Geography, first published in 2015. For the UK, one of a clutch of island nations that are part of the European continent, rejoining the EU may well be a question of “to be or not to be”.

A projection on a cliff in Ramsgate, southern England, on January 31, 2020, the day Brexit took effect. Photo: AP
A projection on a cliff in Ramsgate, southern England, on January 31, 2020, the day Brexit took effect. Photo: AP
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