Ruling on Hong Kong poll a hammer blow to Taiwan reunification hopes
Beijing's tough stance on Hong Kong has only hardened Taiwan's resolve to maintain the status quo
Dr Morris Huang once believed that a deeper bond between Taiwan and mainland China would bring great economic benefits. So he was dismayed when Beijing asserted its authority over Hong Kong's future elections, decreeing last month that it would screen the city's chief executive candidates, a move Huang said had robbed the former British colony of true democracy.
"In just 17 years since Hong Kong reverted to mainland rule, the Beijing authorities have already broken their promise to allow Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy for at least half a century," said the 59-year-old dentist.
Huang's parents are from Guangdong, and his father fled to Taiwan with the defeated Kuomintang forces in 1949.
All hope of freedom under Beijing's direct rule was now gone, he said. " Can we trust them any more?"
When the national legislature voted on August 31 to restrict how Hong Kong picks its chief executive in 2017, the central government dashed the hopes of some Taiwanese that their island could maintain its freedoms under a "one country, two systems" arrangement similar to the one made for Hong Kong in the Sino-British declaration.
"What China has done to Hong Kong only proves that its so-called promise of 'one country, two systems' is nothing but lies," said Chen Wei-ting, a leader of Taiwan's "Sunflower" student protest who stormed Taiwan's legislature in March and stayed there for nearly a month.