"One Country, Two Systems" in Taiwan

One Country, Two Systems is an idea originally proposed by Deng Xiaoping for the reunification of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. After the return of Hong Kong and Macao to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 and 1999, respectively, these two regions have carried out the one country, two systems policy successfully. The policy simply stated is that despite the practice of socialism in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao can continue to practice capitalism under a high degree of autonomy for fifty years after reunification. Hsing Chi knew that as long as the political and economic trend continues pointing toward a decline in Taiwan while there is sustained growth in Chinese mainland, the need for reunification of the two sides will increase. Time is thus not at all on Taiwan s side. Since no better alternative has yet been proposed, one country, two systems is the only peaceful method that can succeed in giving Taiwan a high degree of autonomy while allowing the Taiwanese people to govern the Taiwanese people. The Taiwan issue, viewed superficially, is a China-U.S.-Taiwan triangular relationship. But in reality it is a China-U.S. issue, or more precisely just an American issue. Sooner or later, the U.S. has to decide how it wants to deal with this issue. Only after the Taiwan issue is resolved, the core hindrance of Sino-U.S. relations can be eliminated.

Author: Hsing Chi is a co-partner of Hsieh, Chi & Hsieh Law Offices, an editor of the Strait Review Monthly, and Vice President of the Alliance for the Reunification of China in Taiwan. She was born and educated in Taiwan and earned a Juris Doctor in the U.S. Not long after she became a member of the California Bar, she returned to Taiwan in 1989 to practice law. For the past 15 years, she has been Associate Professor of the School of Law at Soochow University, Chairperson of the Taipei Awakening Association, and twice Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of China (the 3rd session from 1996-2000 and the ad hoc session in June, 2005). She is the author of several Chinese books, including Women and Politics the Women s Movement in Taiwan in the 1990 s (2000), Women s Rights in Modern Society (2001), Family Law in the United States (2002), Life and Death: Discussion on the Legal Aspects of Euthanasia and Death Penalty (2003), One Country, Two Systems in Taiwan (2003), One Country, Two Systems in Taiwan, the New Edition (2004), The Shock of the Enactment of the Anti-Secession Law (2005) and Analyzing Ma Ying-jeou Phenomenon (2006). Translator: Sheng-Wei Wang is a retired Ph.D. physicist after many years of scientific research at Caltech, Stanford University, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and a self-made California real-estate developer. She is now the President of China-U.S. Relations Research Associations. She was born and educated in Taiwan and considered herself nonpolitical until 2004. Like many native Taiwanese, she had doubts about the legitimacy of President Chen Shui-bian s re-election. . . . Wang used her physics research skills to write a JFK-conspiracy-exposé arguing that Chen s minor skin wound must have been staged. This made her a well-known Chinese-American media figure and she decided to work full-time toward Taiwan s peaceful reunification with the mainland (Nat Friedland, The San Francisco Examiner, 3/16/05).