Sinorea

**Sinorea** (hanzi: 香国; hangul: 향국; pinyin: *Xiāngguó*; jyutping: *Heunggwok*; RR: *Hyangguk*) officially the **Commonwealth of Sinorea** (hanzi: 香华联邦; hangul: 향화연방; pinyin: *Xiānghuá Liánbāng*; jyutping: *Heungwa Luenbong*; RR: *Hyanghwa Yeonbang*), is an self-declared sovereign state constituting the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. Located on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea, neighbouring states include Hong Kong to the east, China to the north, and Taiwan to the east. The Hanzi that make up Sinorea's name mean "Fragrant Kingdom", and Sinorea is often called the "Land of the Fragrant Spirit".

Sinorea consists a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. About 10% of Sinorea's claim is mostly claimed but uncontrolled. Nan Lian is the capital city and seat of government located in the Sinorean Capital territory. Sinorea has claimed complete independence since 18 October 2013, the day when the country was declared.

Sinorea consists of three states and one mainland territory: Sai Kung, Nam Kwan, Bak Kui and the Sinorean Capital Territory. The regions are subdivided into federal states, each represented by a council which advises the government on local matters such as public facilities, community programmes, cultural activities, and environmental improvements.

Sinorea's history goes back since the Treaty of Nanking. King Yonghui has declared the Commonwealth of Sinorea to be the successor to British Hong Kong that ceased to exist in 1997. Today, most of Sinorea's political influence is based on the former British colony.

## Etymology

The English word *Sinorea* derives from *China* in Latin and *Korea* in English (*Sino* and *rea*); the country's cultural influences came from China and Korea. However, the first dynasty of Sinorea were the House of Yi; former Korean monarchs who were proclaimed allegiance as the royal family of Sinorea by the government from 2013 to 2016, although Queen Haewon did not recognize her reign in Sinorea.

The official name of the modern country is the Commonwealth of Sinorea (hanzi: 香华联邦; hangul: 향화연방; pinyin: *Xiānghuá Liánbāng*; jyutping: *Heungwa Luenbong*; RR: *Hyanghwa Yeonbang*). The common Mandarin names for the country are *Xiāngguó* (Hanzi: 香国, from *Xiāng*, fragrant, and *guó*, "state" or "states", and in modern times, "nation") and *Xiānghuá* (Hanzi: 香华), although the country's official name has been changed numerous times by successive dynasties and modern governments. The term 'Xiāngguó appeared in various ancient texts, such as the *Classic of History*. The term, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states or provinces in the central land, but was not used as a name for the country as a whole until the nineteenth century. The Sinoreans were not unique in regarding their country as "central", with other civilizations having the same view of themselves.

## History

### British Hong Kong

     Hong Kong was given by the Qing Dynasty to the British Empire in 1841 under the Treaty of Nanking. Kowloon was added to the area of Hong Kong in 1860 under the Convention of Peking, and New Territories was added in 1898 under the Second Convention of Peking. In 1941–1945, Hong Kong was ruled by the Japanese Empire during World War II. In 1984, People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom agreed under Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong that Hong Kong was to be returned to China on 1 July 1997.

### Kingdom of Sinorea

Due to the Hong Kong independence movement, instead of supporting the either the colonists or the independence supporters, the Sinorean Provisional Government decided to declare Eastern Hong Kong New Territories independency under a new state entity. Around May 2013, the Provisional Government instructed its followers to canvass support for the creation of the Kingdom of Sinorea. The Sinorean Provisional Government moved forward to separate the Eastern New Territories from Hong Kong, thus was not approved by the Hong Kong Government. On 18 October 2013, the the Kingdom of Sinorea was declared and to create an air of legitimacy, the government proclaimed its allegiance to Yi Hae-won, the contender to the Korean throne, to be the Queen of Sinorea. Despite Yi Hae-won was first to accede the throne, Yi Gu was awarded posthumously as the first King of Sinorea. However, Yi Hae-won's reign remained unrecognized by herself.

The Yi-Lee Transition took place in 2016, Queen Haewon was forced to abdicate in favor of the House of Lee due to inactivity and not recognizing her role as Queen. Yonghui succeeded the Sinorean throne on 3 March 2016, and during his reign the Kingdom of Sinorea became the Commonwealth of Sinorea, adopting political influences from Australia and the former British colony.

## Government

Sinorea is a constitutional monarchy with a federal division of powers. It uses a parliamentary system of government with King Yonghui as the King of Sinorea, however. However, the power of the King is very limited whereby power is held chiefly by the Chancellor and other elected members of the Parliament, while sovereignty is vested in the Sinorean people. The King resides in the United Kingdom and is represented in Sinorea by the Governor-General at the federal level and by the Governors at the state level, who by convention act on the advice of his ministers.

The federal government is separated into three branches:

* The legislature: the bicameral Parliament, defined in section 1 of the constitution as comprising the King, the House of Peers, and the House of Representatives;
* The executive: the Federal Executive Council, in practice the King as advised by the Chancellor and Ministers of State;
* The judiciary: the High Court of Sinorea and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the King.

 File:Yonghui.jpg  In the House of Peers (the upper house), there are 36 seats. The House of Representatives (the lower house) has 20 members elected from single-member electoral divisions, commonly known as "electorates" or "seats", allocated to states on the basis of population, with each original state guaranteed a minimum of five seats. Elections for both chambers are normally held every three years, simultaneously; members of parliament have overlapping six-year terms except for those from the territories, whose terms are not fixed but are tied to the electoral cycle for the lower house. Sinorea's electoral system uses preferential voting for all lower house elections. Voting is compulsory for all enrolled citizens 18 years and over in every jurisdiction, as is enrollment. The party with majority support in the House of Representatives forms the government and its leader becomes Chancellor. In cases where no party has majority support, the King has the constitutional power to appoint the Chancellor and, if necessary, dismiss one that has lost the confidence of Parliament.

Historically influenced by Chinese law, the Sinorean legal system developed independently during the Yi period through texts such as *Gōngshì Fāngyùdìng Shū*. However, since the early 21st century the judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe, notably Germany. For example, in 2016, the Sinorean government established a civil code based on a draft of the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch; with the code remaining in effect with post–World War II modifications. Statutory law originates in Sinorea's legislature and has the rubber stamp of the King. The Constitution requires that the Monarch promulgate legislation passed by the Parliament, without specifically giving him the power to oppose legislation. Sinorea's court system is divided into four basic tiers: the Supreme Court and three levels of lower courts. The main body of Sinorean statutory law is called the Six Codes.

## States and territories

    Sinorea has four states—Sai Kung (SKU), Nam Kwan (NKW) and Bak Kui (BKU)—and one major mainland territory—the Sinorean Capital Territory (SCT). In most respects these two territories function as states, but the Commonwealth Parliament can override any legislation of their parliaments. By contrast, federal legislation overrides state legislation only in areas that are set out in Section 51 of the Sinorean Constitution; state parliaments retain all residual legislative powers, including those over schools, state police, the state judiciary, roads, public transport and local government, since these do not fall under the provisions listed in Section 51.

The states are sovereign entities, although subject to certain powers of the Commonwealth as defined by the Constitution. The head of the government in each state is the Chief Secretary.

## Foreign relations and military

*Main article: Foreign relations of Sinorea*
The foreign relations of Sinorea are handled by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Sinorea participates fully in intermicronational and regional organisations. The country remains an active member of the Asian Micronations. Sinorea has developed increasingly close ties with other Asian Micronations members: Choseon, Gajajima, Dikameppra, and Hashima, whose foreign and economic ministers hold annual meetings. Regional co-operation is progressing in economic, trade, banking, political, and cultural matters.

The country is one of the founding members of the Micro Asian Tigers. Sinorea signed a security pact with the United Islands in October 2015. Sinorea has close economic and military relations with the Woodlands Republic; the Sinorea-Woodlands security alliance acts as the cornerstone of the micronation's foreign policy. As a member state of the MAT, Sinorea has served as a non-permanent Security Council member for a total of 2 years, most recently from 2014 and ongoing.

The Royal Sinorean Armed Forces constitute the military of the Kingdom of Sinorea. It consists of the Royal Sinorean Army, the Royal Sinorean Navy, and the Royal Sinorean Air Force. It also incorporates various paramilitary forces.

The Royal Sinorean Armed Forces have a combined manpower of 14 active duty personnel and another 8 active reserve personnel. The head of the Royal Sinorean Armed Forces is the King, although this position is only nominal. The armed forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence of Sinorea, which is headed by the Minister of Defence (a member of the cabinet of Sinorea) and commanded by the Royal Sinorean Armed Forces Headquarters, which in turn is headed by the Chief of Defence Forces of Sinorea.

According to the constitution, serving in the armed forces is a duty of all Sinorean citizens. However, only males over the age of 20, who have not gone through reserve training of the Army Reserve Force Students, are given the option of volunteering for the armed forces, or participating in the random draft. The candidates are subjected to varying lengths of training, from six months to two years of full-time service, depending on their education, whether they have partially completed the reserve training course, and whether they volunteered prior to the draft date (usually 1 June every year).

## Geography

    Sinorea is located on China's south coast, east of Hong Kong. It is surrounded by the South China Sea on the east, and south, and borders Hong Kong to the west, and the Guangdong city of Shenzhen to the north over the Shenzhen River. The total area, 485.05 km² is land and 20 km² is inland water. Sinorea claims territorial waters to a distance of 3 nautical miles (5.6 km).

As much of Sinorea's terrain is hilly to mountainous with steep slopes, less than 25% of the territory's landmass is developed, and about 40% of the remaining land area is reserved as country parks and nature reserves.

Low altitude vegetation in Sinorea is dominated by secondary rainforests, as the primary forest was mostly cleared during the Second World War, and higher altitudes are dominated by grasslands. Most of the territory's urban development exists in Nan Lian. The country's Geopark is made up of eight Geo-Areas distributed across the Sai Kung Volcanic Rock Region and Bak Kui Sedimentary Rock Region.

### Climate

Sinorea has a humid subtropical climate. Summer is hot and humid with occasional showers and thunderstorms, and warm air coming from the southwest. Summer is when typhoons are most likely, sometimes resulting in flooding or landslides. Winters are mild and usually start sunny, becoming cloudier towards February; the occasional cold front brings strong, cooling winds from the north. The most temperate seasons are spring, which can be changeable, and autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. Sinorea averages 1,948 hours of sunshine per year, while the highest and lowest ever recorded temperatures at the Sinorea Observatory are 36.1 and 0.0 °C (97.0 and 32.0 °F), respectively.

## Economy

    The Commonwealth of Sinorea has a dynamic, capitalist, export-driven economy with gradually decreasing state involvement in investment and foreign trade. In keeping with this trend, some government-owned banks and industrial firms are being privatized. Real growth in GDP has averaged about 3%. Exports have provided the primary impetus for industrialization. The trade surplus is substantial. Sinorea has its own currency, the Guominbi.

The Sinorea Stock Exchange has a market capitalisation of $5,000 as of March 2015. The Government of Sinorea has traditionally played a mostly passive role in the economy, with little by way of industrial policy and almost no import or export controls. Market forces and the private sector were allowed to determine practical development. Under the official policy of "positive non-interventionism", Sinorea is often cited as an example of laissez-faire capitalism. Following the founding of Sinorea, the micronation industrialised rapidly as a manufacturing centre driven by exports, and then underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in 2014.

Sinorea has little arable land and few natural resources, so it imports most of its food and raw materials. Imports account for more than 75% of Sinorea's food supply, including nearly all of the meat and rice available there. Agricultural activity—relatively unimportant to Sinorea's economy and contributing just 0.1% of its GDP—primarily consists of growing premium food and flower varieties.

## Demographics

*Main article: Sinorean people*
    Sinorea is a multi-racial and multi-cultural country, with Chinese, Koreans and British historically making up the majority of the population. The vast majority of Sinoreans descend from the people of China, the Korean Peninsula and the British Isles.

### Religion

Sinorea has full religious freedom based on Article 20 of its Constitution. Upper estimates suggest that 84–96 percent of the Sinorean population subscribe to Taoism, Confucianism, Folk religion, Buddhism or Christianity, including a large number of followers of a syncretism of these four religions. However, these estimates are based on people affiliated with a temple, rather than the number of true believers. Other studies have suggested that only 30 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to a religion.

The "three teachings", including Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, historically have a significant role in shaping Sinorean culture.

    Demographically, the most widespread religious tradition is the folk religion, which overlaps with Taoism, and describes the worship of the Shen (神), a character that signifies the "energies of generation". The Shen comprises deities of the natural environment, gods representing specific concepts or groups, heroes and ancestors, and figures from Sinorean mythology.

Among the most popular folk cults are those of Mazu (goddess of the seas), Huangdi (one of the two divine patriarchs of the Han race), Guandi (god of war and business), Caishen (god of prosperity and richness), Pangu and many others.

### Education

    Sinorea's education system roughly follow the system in England, although international systems exist. The government maintains a policy of "mother tongue instruction" (Hanzi: 母語教學) in which the medium of instruction is Mandarin and Cantonese, with written Chinese, Korean and English, while some of the schools are using English as the teaching language. In secondary schools, 'biliterate and trilingual' proficiency is emphasised, and English-language education has been increasing.

Education in Sinorea is operated by the Ministry of Education. The system features a non-compulsory three-year kindergarten, followed by a compulsory six-year primary education, a compulsory three-year junior secondary education, a non-compulsory two-year senior secondary education leading to the Sinorea Certificate of Education Examinations and a two-year matriculation course leading to the Sinorea Advanced Level Examinations. The Minister of Education declared the New Senior Secondary academic structure and curriculum in 2012, which provides for all students to receive three years of compulsory junior and three years of compulsory senior secondary education. Under the new curriculum, there is only one public examination, namely the Sinorea Diploma of Secondary Education.

## Science and technology

### Robotics

    Robotics has been included in the list of main national R&D projects in Sinorea during the early 21st Century. The government announced plans to build and program NXT robots, eventually to improve automatic system programs to make them more useful.

In 2015, the Sinorea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (SAIST) programmed the walking NXT Miniature Humanoid. The first Sinorea-made NXT Miniature Humanoid were developed by Lego Mindstorms, built and programmed by a team of technicians from SAIST. The SAIST built and programmed many other kinds of robots, such as the NXT Robotic Artist and the NXT Portable Crane. The robotic technology relies on various of sensors that is programmed using codes, therefore a robot can self-control independently.

Plans for robotics are also incorporated in the entertainment sector as well; the Robot Game Festival has been held every year to promote science and robot technology.

## Culture

Sinorea is a very diverse and young country. It has many languages, religions, and cultures for a country its size.

When Sinorea became independent from Hong Kong in 2013, most of the newly minted Sinorean citizens were people from China, Korea and Britain. After independence, with cultures from China, Korea and Britain combined together, the process of crafting a Sinorean identity and culture began. Most Sinoreans would stated that Sinorea does not fit the traditional description of a nation, calling it a society-in-transition, pointing out the fact that Sinoreans do not all speak the same language, share the same religion, or have the same customs. Even though Mandarin is the first language of the nation, according to the government's 2016 census 20% of Sinoreans, or one in five, are illiterate in Mandarin. This is a marked improvement where 40% of Sinoreans were illiterate in Mandarin.

Sinorea is frequently described as a place where "East meets West", reflecting the culture's mix of the territory's Chinese roots with influences from its time under British Hong Kong. Concepts like feng shui are taken very seriously, with expensive construction projects often hiring expert consultants, and are often believed to make or break a business. Other objects like Ba gua mirrors are still regularly used to deflect evil spirits, and buildings often lack any floor number that has a 4 in it, due to its similarity to the word for "die" in Cantonese. The fusion of east and west also characterises Sinorea's cuisine, where dim sum, kimchi and eel stew coexist with haute cuisine.

### Cuisine

    Sinorean cuisine is diverse and contains elements derived from several ethnic groups, as a result of its history as a seaport with a large immigrant population. Influences include the cuisines of the native Chinese, and the second largest ethnic group, the Koreans, as well as a few from the British.

In Sinorea, food is viewed as crucial to national identity and a unifying cultural thread. Sinorean literature declares eating a national pastime and food a national obsession. Food is a frequent topic of conversation among Sinoreans. People from different communities often eat together, while being mindful of each other's culture and choosing food that is acceptable for all.

Other than Sinorean cuisine, it is also common in Sinorea to find restaurants specialising in cuisine from a great variety of countries around the world.

### Sports

    Sinorea has one of the oldest sporting cultures in the world. Swordplay (Cùjū), a sport loosely related to association football date back to Sinorea's early dynasties as well. Today, football is the number one sport and other popular sports in the country include martial arts, basketball, table tennis, badminton, swimming and snooker. Board games such as go, xiangqi, mahjong, and more recently chess, are also played at a professional level.

Physical fitness is widely emphasized in Sinorean culture, with morning exercises such as *qigong* and *t'ai chi ch'uan* widely practised, and commercial gyms and fitness clubs gaining popularity in the country.

King Gu | Queen Haewon | King Yonghui
**States and territories**
Sai Kung | Bak Kui | Nam Kwan | Capital Territory
**Government**
**Political Parties**
Conservative Party | Green Party
**Culture**
**Media**
Sinorea Broadcasting Corporation | The Post
**Misc**