The first time that the concept of “One Country, Two Systems” was formally presented was during a meeting between Deng Xiaoping and the president of the Chinese American Association of the United States, Yao-Tzu Li, in January 1982. From the start, Deng was clear and elaborate that this systematic policy would apply not only to Taiwan, but also to Hong Kong and Macau.
This concept was and remains one of the world’s most realistic/pragmatic, tolerant, and respectful policies ever undertaken by a powerful country, because it honours history and respects the status quo. You may wonder, how?
That begs an explanation for what the concept entails. The “One Country, Two Systems” implies that in pursuit of the reunification of China and maintenance of the One China Principle, mainland China would not impose its socialist system on the regions of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and that those regions would be free to implement the capitalist system and that their people would keep their way of life.
The architect of this concept, Deng Xiaoping, had the foresight to discern that given China’s colonial past which had culminated into the colonisation of Hong Kong by Britain in 1842, the control of Macau by the Portuguese since the 16th century, and the separation of Taiwan from mainland China following the 1949 Chinese Civil War, it would be unrealistic and even destabilising to immediately and forcefully reunify or politically integrate those regions with China.
The success of the policy may seem mindboggling to the rest of the world, but if you think about it, Deng’s proposal was aligned well with traditional Chinese philosophy, since Confucianism holds harmony and peaceful coexistence in the utmost regard, and despises confrontation and sameness. China also has concepts like Junzi to describe the honour of a person who seeks harmony, in contrast to Xiaoren, which connotes a person who seeks conformity.
In his signature pragmatism, which he had earlier applied to opening up China, Deng proposed that these territories should be under Chinese sovereignty but must not be compelled to abandon their capitalist economies to adopt China’s socialism. He suggested that they should be left to run their existing systems for at least fifty years after reunification. He was a very strategic, patient man, that Deng. He even propounded that if reunification could not be achieved in 100 years, it would eventually be achieved, maybe in 1000 years!
As such, the concept was conceived by a man who was awake to China’s realities. It was clear to Deng, based on his writings and speeches on this issue, that neither China’s socialism nor the “Three People’s Principles,” the foundational political philosophy of Taiwan, would be allowed to swallow up the other. It was also obvious that using force would benefit neither side. Most importantly, reunification would be most tenable if it were aspired to by the whole nation.
Few governments in the world, let alone any Western country, have solved an international question with the generous pragmatism with which China approached Hong Kong and even Taiwan. The historical pattern is that lost territories are recovered through violence. China defied that in Hong Kong and Macau, and has continued to defy the use of military means to take back Taiwan, despite unbearable provocations from the United States and its Western allies.
This concept, with its flexibility, accepts the realities in the economy, politics, and culture in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan to the greatest extent possible, with full respect for their history and culture as well as the interests and concerns of the local people. With the passage of time, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan will find more common ground with the mainland as a result of more frequent and extensive exchanges between them.
China has demonstrated a knack for betting successfully on time and investing into future when the greed of the present tempts most big powers. This is the lens through which we should understand its flexibility in dealing with Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, by accepting the realities in their economic, political and cultural lives. After a long time of interacting economically and socially, it will be easy to reunify politically. How can they not? These are siblings. They have the same roots, share a common history, and have shared culture and traditions in the past. The modern image of China is something all Chinese people will want to associate with, and with the steady decline of the West, it is plausible that Taiwan will soon find its future in mainland China rather than the West. With the One Country, Two Systems, China challenged the world to reimagine political integration like never before. Let us give their experiment a chance.
The writer is a research fellow, Development Watch Center.
