Chinese President Xi Jinping raised the same proposition four years ago when he chaired an anniversary session in Beijing about reunification with Taiwan, a self-ruled island of 24 million.

Andrew Yang Nien-dzu, a former Taiwanese defence minister, said He’s remarks underscored the chasm of understanding between Beijing and Taipei.

“Beijing’s ‘one country, two systems’ formula has no market in Taiwan and Taiwanese people believe this is just a trick by the mainland to destroy the Republic of China government,” Yang said, using Taiwan’s official name.

“Taiwan has stated its position clearly that the Republic of China is an independent sovereign state. If Beijing really wants to negotiate, then it has to make clear its stance about the Republic of China, or there isn’t really any room for negotiations.”

Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province to be united eventually with the mainland, by force if necessary. It has emphasised that it aims for peaceful reunification under its “one China” principle which states that the mainland and Taiwan are one country.

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Beijing has also made clear that it will not renounce the use of force against Taiwan to deter foreign interference on the island.

He Lei contended that the Taiwan issue was a “continuation of China’s civil war”, which ended in 1949.

“Taiwan is an internal issue for China and it is a continuation of the civil war,” he said. “This is why the Chinese military is called the People’s Liberation Army – because [Taiwan] is not liberated yet and China is not yet united.”

“Now the Tsai Ing-wen [government] of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party wants to promote Taiwan independence, and invites foreign intervention,” he said. “This is why we cannot renounce the use of force … we are still fighting the war of liberation.”

Ties across the Taiwan Strait have sunk to a low ebb since Tsai, of the independence-leaning DPP, was elected president in 2016, and won a second term three years ago.

Taiwan will have a presidential election in January – Tsai cannot seek a third term – and cross-strait relations have again become a key election issue.

Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. However, Washington opposes any use of force to change the status quo.

Chang Ya-chung, a retired professor of the National Taiwan University in Taipei, said “one country, two systems” failed to recognise the reality that Taiwan was ruled by the ROC government.

“If it is Beijing’s position that the civil war has not ended, then it will need a three-step solution [for reunification] and the first one would be a peace agreement to end cross-strait hostility,” Chang said.

“This will help pave the way for reunification talks, and only the final step is to discuss what political system Taiwan may adopt.”

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Lu Li-shih, a former instructor of Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, said younger Taiwanese today understood cross-strait relations differently compared with their parents and that most people considered it a relationship of two separate states.

He added that Taiwanese were convinced that Hong Kong’s political turmoil in recent years showed that the one country, two systems formula was a failure.

Taiwan-based defence expert Chi Le-yi said He’s remarks only showed that the gap between Beijing and Taipei on the future of the relationship had widened.

“Beijing needs to understand that the Republic of China is now a genuine democracy whereas the political situation in mainland China is worse than what it was when the Republic of China government ruled the country,” Chi said.

“How can you convince Taiwanese people to give up what they have and revert to a more backward state under the ‘one China’ framework?”