Chinese authorities have been skilful in managing the relationship between the
centre and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
33
Taiwan
The invention of ‘one country, two systems’ is attributed to Deng Xiaoping’s idea
of a ‘peaceful unification’ between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. Yet, there is
a misunderstanding that the Chinese leadership is unrealistically preparing to
replicate the Hong Kong model in Taiwan, or that ‘one country, two systems’
ought to be applied identically in the two territories. From the start, Deng Xiaoping
made it clear that the prospective Taiwanese government should be entitled to
much greater powers after national unification. Deng Xiaoping himself proposed
that Taiwan should maintain its partisan, governmental and military institutions,
as well as be provided with some high-ranking posts in the centre. The updated
proposal for national unification from the Chinese leadership can be witnessed in
the 2005 Anti-secession Law (Act). Most observers in Taiwan focus on Article 8 ,
which reads:
In the event that the ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist forces should
act under any name or by any means to cause the fact of Taiwan’s
secession from China, or that major incidents entailing Taiwan’s
secession from China should occur, or that possibilities for a
peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted, the state shall
employ non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to protect
China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.^34
For Taiwan, seeing that the PRC still does not give up ‘non-peaceful means’ of
addressing the problem is unacceptable because many decades have passed
since the de facto truce across the strait. However, there are positive signals in
Article 7 ( 2 ), which states:
The two sides of the Taiwan Straits may consult and negotiate on the
following matters:
( 1 ) officially ending the state of hostility between the two sides;
( 2 ) mapping out the development of cross-Straits relations;
( 3 ) steps and arrangements for peaceful national reunification;
( 4 ) the political status of the Taiwan authorities;
(^33) Many expect Hong Kong’s constitutional praxis will accelerate the centre’s change towards
mature constitutionalism. See Fu et al.,Interpreting Hong Kong’s Basic Law,p. 2. For
similar points see Susan Henders, ‘The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region:
implications for world order’, in Laliberte ́and Lanteigne,The Chinese Party-State in the
21 st Century, pp. 106 – 7.
(^34) The Anti-secession Law, Art. 8.