The paper focuses on relations between the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong as a prominent current example of the relationship between a sovereign and quasi-sovereign political unit in which indirect rule is applied. It aims to explicate how China consolidates and strengthens its influence over politics in Hong Kong. Building on Bob Jessop’s power-relational understanding of state configuration as a key theoretical perspective for approaching the issue, it is argued that the key dynamics does not solely lie in institutional changes (or attempted changes) of Hong Kong politics although they cause many concerns internationally and also within Hong Kong’s civil society. Rather, it is the interplay between these changes and China’s preservation and cultivation of its interest coalition with Hong Kong business elites which secures China’s influence in Hong Kong.