“一国两制”漫谈⑤ | 为什么回归前的香港不是殖民地？

作者：萧平

XIAO PING

资深时事评论员

Why was Hong Kong not a colony of Britain before 1997?

九七前，英国视香港为殖民地，所谓“海外属土”不过是殖民地的另一种称谓。但香港其实不是殖民地，只是英国人在这里实行了殖民统治。区分这一点十分重要，有助于理解香港回归祖国的涵义，认清港英搞“光荣撤退”的用心，看穿“港独”主张的荒谬。

Before 1997, Britain regarded Hong Kong as its "overseas territory", an alias for colony. However, Hong Kong was in fact not a colony; it was merely under the colonial rule of the British. It is very important to note the difference, which will help us understand the significance of Hong Kong's return to the motherland and see the ulterior motives of Britain's "glorious retreat" as well as the absurdity of Hong Kong independence.

在英国殖民者眼中，香港岛和九龙半岛“永久割让”，英国理所当然拥有主权。新界虽为租借，但租期长达99年，以“日不落帝国”的淫威对付积贫积弱的旧中国，归还与否无需考虑。毫无疑问，当年的英国政府完全是以宗主国的身份，按殖民地模式经营和管治香港的。

In the eyes of British colonists, Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula were "permanently ceded", thus Britain had sovereignty over these two territories. Even though the New Territories was leased for 99 years, "the empire on which the sun never set" did not need to worry about giving it back to China, a poor and crumbling nation back then. Without a doubt, the British government ran Hong Kong as a colony in the capacity of suzerain.

但这只是他们的一厢情愿。清朝之后的中国政府均不承认“割让”香港的不平等条约，从未放弃对香港的领土主权。1971年中华人民共和国恢复在联合国的合法席位后不久，即致函联合国非殖民化委员会，郑重声明：“香港、澳门是属于历史上遗留下来的帝国主义强加于中国的一系列不平等条约的结果。香港和澳门是被英国和葡萄牙当局占领的中国领土的一部分，解决香港、澳门问题完全是属于中国主权范围内的问题，根本不属于通常的“殖民地”范畴。”同年11月，联合国大会以99票对5票，通过了将香港、澳门从殖民地名单上删除的决议。中国此举是对历史事实的确认，更是对国家主权的坚定维护。

However, that was just their assumption. No Chinese government since the demise of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) recognized the unfair treaties that ceded Hong Kong to the United Kingdom and gave up China's sovereignty over Hong Kong. Soon after the People's Republic of China took over the country's seat at the United Nations in October 1971, it wrote to the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and solemnly declared that both Hong Kong and Macao are Chinese territories that were occupied by the UK and Portugal respectively under a series of unequal treaties they had forced the Qing Dynasty's rulers to sign. The letter also states that resolving the questions of Hong Kong and Macao is a matter within China’s sovereignty; the two cities must not be treated as "colonies" in the usual sense of the word. A month later, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution by a vote of 99-5 that removed Hong Kong and Macao from the list of existing colonies. By doing so, China reconfirmed a historical fact and reaffirmed its sovereignty beyond a reasonable doubt.

二战后兴起了一波殖民地独立潮。一些殖民地在脱离宗主国的同时，也改变了过往的国家关系，宣布独立，成为新的主权国家。但香港不同，香港的主权始终属于中国，从未假手于人，不存在争取主权和民族独立的问题。把香港从联合国殖民地名单中拿掉，杜绝了主权争议，为香港回归祖国扫清了可能的障碍。所以，无论《中英联合声明》还是基本法，写的都不是“收回主权”，而是“恢复行使主权”。基本法序言和第1条开宗明义：“香港自古以来就是中国的领土”，“香港特别行政区是中华人民共和国不可分离的部分”。

Independence movements swept across colonies after World War II, some of which changed their relationship with their former suzerains forever, and declared independence to become sovereign states. Hong Kong was not one of them, however, because it was not a colony to begin with and China has never handed its sovereignty over the territory to another country. Therefore, ideas such as sovereignty and national independence are not applicable to Hong Kong. By removing Hong Kong from the UN list of non-self-governing territories, China effectively eliminated any sovereignty dispute and cleared the path for Hong Kong's return to the motherland. That is why neither the Sino-British Joint Declaration nor the Basic Law contains the words "resuming sovereignty (over Hong Kong)". Instead, they use the words "resuming the exercise of sovereignty (over Hong Kong)". The Basic Law illuminates this issue at the very beginning, as its preamble starts with "Hong Kong has been part of the territory of China since ancient times" and Article 1 says "the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China".

英国是老牌帝国，每每在结束殖民统治前大搞所谓“光荣撤退”，制造族群对立，仓促开放选举，导致社会动荡、政府弱势，这样就可以继续维持宗主国的影响力。港英政府在回归前的过渡期也使出这一伎俩，骤然加速选举进程。彭定康得意地宣称香港正在经历“一个政治城市迈向民主的过程”，一手毁掉了立法局直接过渡为特区立法会的“直通车”。过往100多年不搞民主，现在忽然要“还政于民”，令人不禁要问，港英政府想要的，究竟是民主还是变相的殖民地自决？

Britain, the old imperial power, has never left its former colonies a clean slate when its rule approached its end. It always pursued "glorious retreat" by force-feeding its colonies with crude democratic elections that tended to divide rather than unite the society, allowing the former colonial master to maintain its influence there forever. As a result, those newly independent nations have long suffered from social unrest and weak government. Likewise, the British Hong Kong government played this trick during the lead-up to its departure. Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, initiated an electoral cram course that he has proudly described as a process of turning the city into a democracy. In doing so, he single-handedly destroyed the "through-train" arrangement for the city's old legislature to become the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong SAR. Britain denied Hong Kong society any form of democracy for well over a century before it signed the joint declaration with China in 1984. Then in a great rush, it launched a process to "hand the government back to the people". Many cannot help but suspect what Britain really wanted for Hong Kong was self-determination instead of democracy.

至于近年冒起的诸如“香港城邦论”“香港民族论”等“港独”思潮，以及对港英统治的“恋殖情节”，于情不符，于法无据，痴人说梦罢了。

As for an assortment of pro-independence fantasies that popped up in recent years — such as "Hong Kong as a city-state" and "Hong Kong as a nation", along with ridiculous demonstrations of love for the colonial past — all are illusionary ideas divorced from reality with no legal basis.

原文刊登于4月10日《中国日报香港版》