The European Union and Hong Kong: foreign policy making from 1997 to 2022

Thesis

This thesis offers the first comprehensive and long-term examination of the processes that have shaped the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy towards Hong Kong. Building on insights from more than 60 elite interviews and other sources, it presents a broad and detailed analysis of the EU’s approach towards the city between 1997 and 2022. In so doing, it contributes to the understanding of an important but unresearched area of EU foreign policy making. The thesis has two main aims.

Firstly, it utilises the concept of Europeanisation to explore how 25 years of EU-member state interaction within the EU foreign policy framework has impacted on both levels’ respective views towards Hong Kong. Drawing on recent insights from the Europeanisation literature, it builds on the concept’s classic compartmentalisation into processes of downloading, uploading, and crossloading, and analyses whether longstanding EU-member state cooperation on Hong Kong has led to a convergence in views towards the city. It also asks whether specific member states – the UK, France, and Germany – have succeeded in transforming their domestic positions into long-term EU wide positions. The findings reveal substantial evidence of Europeanisation in its downloading and uploading forms, but limited evidence of a long-term convergence in views.

Secondly, it identifies and applies the concepts of de-Europeanisation, contestation, and politicisation to explore whether the EU’s failure to develop a coherent Hong Kong policy from mid-2020 onwards should be viewed in a context of broader, systemic challenges to the EU foreign policy framework. Here, the thesis shows that while such challenges merit serious attention, this particular failure should not be viewed as one of them. Rather, it represents the continuation of a dynamic visible in the broader EU-China relationship, shaped by divergent views among member states, and above all guided by economic interests.

Overall, these findings show the potential and limitations of the Europeanisation approach as a tool to uncover how constant interaction between EU institutions and member states shapes EU foreign policy, and of the de-Europeanisation approach to examine how the growing rise in conflict on foreign policy issues affect the EU’s foreign policy framework. Above all, they give support to the view that member states remain firmly in control of how the EU will evolve as a foreign policy actor and show that there are limited prospects for a truly united EU foreign policy.

Authors: Gentils, S

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-pzrey79d7
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: EU Foreign Policy; CFSP; European Union; Hong Kong; EU-China
• Subjects: European Union--Great Britain; European Union; European Union countries; Political science; Hong Kong; Hong Kong Protests, Hong Kong, China, 2019-