Coordinating Across “One Country, Two Systems”: A Case Study of Governance Mechanisms in the 15th National Games

Abstract

The 15th National Games of the People’s Republic of China, jointly hosted by Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and Macao in November 2025, represents the first instance in which multiple provincial-level administrative regions co-hosted a National Games under the “one country, two systems” framework. This study asks how cross-system coordination governance mechanisms emerged in such an institutionally asymmetric setting, and what characteristics they exhibited across organizational, regulatory, and resource dimensions. Drawing on collaborative governance theory, the study applies directed content analysis to 47 official policy documents issued between August 2021 and November 2025, yielding 558 coded provisions. The findings identify a governance model best characterized as centrally coordinated, jurisdictionally differentiated, and operationally interconnected. The “1+4” liaison mechanism, the “pre-verification plus closed-loop management” customs model, and an asymmetric resource distribution with Guangdong as the core host and Hong Kong and Macao as specialized nodes constitute the core innovations. The findings extend collaborative governance theory into cross-jurisdictional institutional settings and offer practical implications for future Greater Bay Area cooperation.