City Beat | Taiwan is not Hong Kong, and China’s President Xi Jinping will deal with the two separately
The ‘two sessions’ are upon us, and there will be restructuring in the party and the state. But speculation that the bodies dealing with these two complex places would merge is wide of the mark
When paramount leader Deng Xiaoping designed the “one country, two systems” policy for Hong Kong’s post-1997 governance almost four decades ago, he had a bigger mission in mind that was no secret to all – he hoped that one day the same formula could be applied to the reunification of Taiwan and the motherland, although Beijing has never publicly made it the only option.
The Taiwan issue had to be handled differently from Hong Kong – the city had a clear 1997 deadline for its return to Chinese rule, while setting a definite timeline for Taiwan’s return was not possible then – and still isn’t – due to obvious domestic and international considerations.