The path towards sovereign territory: Reading China’s (anti)federal idea against its modern territorial constitutional imaginary

Abstract This article aims to shed light on how China has (re)imagined the geographical distribution of authority on its path towards modern statehood by unpacking the debate surrounding the constitutional status of Hong Kong in China’s territorial constitution. Challenging the conventional wisdom that China is constitutionally impervious to the federal idea, it makes a threefold argument. First, elements of federalism do exist in China, as intimated in its territorial constitution regarding Hong Kong, but have become nearly invisible as the relationship between mainland China and Hong Kong is traveling in the opposite direction. Second, the opposite development is attributable to the antifederal idea embedded in China’s modern constitutional imaginary, which has been shaped by its multifaceted experience with federalism in history. Under the antifederal idea, intimations of federalism in China’s territorial constitution are far from the bridge to a full-fledged Chinese federation, but only meant to be instrumental and transitional. Third, the antifederal idea reflects China’s modern territorial constitutional imaginary under which variegated imperial frontiers are reimagined as homogenized state territory. In conclusion, China’s encounter with Western legal concepts is formative of the Chinese modern constitutional imaginary and thus further influences its attitude towards federalism in framing the territorial constitution.