One Country, Three Systems? Unlikely
Unfortunately for Beijing, democratic virtues, or lack thereof, are only the beginning of the end of Hong Kong’s parallels with Taiwan. History is the key differentiator.
Hong Kong was first incorporated into China under the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.). Even Hong Kong’s most ardent pro-democracy Anglophiles would never dispute that Hong Kong is a millennia-old, inalienable part of China. The same cannot be said for Taiwan.
Almost any English language article on cross-Strait issues inevitably includes some variation of the following stock sentence, “China and Taiwan split in 1949 after a civil war and China has long vowed to attack Taiwan if it declares formal independence.” This leads one to think Taiwan was forever part of China, and that one day, events tore them apart, much like the two Koreas today. But that’s not the case.
Bear with me here, but Taiwan was originally settled by Malay-Polynesians, thereafter “welcoming” centuries of Han Chinese migration. China’s Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.), and its eventual exiles, did exert considerable influence over Taiwan’s affairs. But the island was in fact home to Spanish and Dutch settlements before it was first formally made part of China in 1683 A.D., when it was annexed as a prefecture under the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Taiwan was also later a Japanese colony from 1895-1945.
Sean King’s full editorial is currently available at The Seoul Times main site.
Sean King has been working for Park Strategies LLC as the Vice President, since 2006.