This article examines the meaning and features of 'internationalisation' in higher education in the social and historical contexts of Hong Kong. From a perspective of shifting geopolitics of higher education aligned with a historical perspective of evolving academic traditions, this article discerns parallel developments featuring the transition of Hong Kong universities along two pathways--benchmarking Western universities' internationalisation agenda, and converging with China's projection for national integration and global outreach. The HK case provides a critique of liberal views of internationalisation of higher education based on the logics of neoliberalism, soft power, global citizenship, and internationalisation at home, suggesting a closer look at statist instrumentalism in conjunction with neoliberalism as competitive strategies in a realistic international higher education community.