Actually they are close to city states in that none of them are part of a province. Each is a discreet administrative area under the control of the central government. Sort of like DC.
“ Actually they are close to city states.”
Yes.
Not city states. You left out Tianjin and Chongqing. Special municipalities.
A lot of countries have these special municipalities.
Monaco, Vatican and Singapore are city states.
Hong Kong should be but it and Macao are special administrative regions.