First of all Hong Kong is NOT a country does NOT qualify to be a country has never been a country and should NOT even be on this list What Hong Kong does have is an automous government with some privileges of autonomy that is granted to them by their parent country and parent sovereign state of China Someone who wants Hong Kong to be a country apparently put the Hong Kong listing here where it should not be In terms of this article the definition of a country is that of a sovereign state if you look at the list every single other country listed is a sovereign state EXCEPT for Hong Kong which should be correctly labeled under it s parent country and parent sovereign state of China that is indisputable 114 229 248 214