One Country, Two Systems

Have you ever heard of “One Country, Two systems” policy? Coined by Deng Xiaoping, the second Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, the term “One Country, Two Systems” refers to the constitutional principle that there is only one legitimate China despite the fact that certain distinct regions, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, have the rights to “retain their own capitalist economic and political systems” (One Country, Two Systems). In other words, while the majority of China, commonly known as mainland China, follows a socialistic system (with the exception of some special economic zones where capitalism dominates, but this is another story), Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau can have their own government, currencies, police, education systems, passports and even separate languages. This does not make any sense, right? How can one nation have such dichotomous systems at the same time? In order to fully understand the significance of this policy, let’s take a step back and examine the history of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, a small island city located on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea, is one of the most densely populated metropolises, with around 7.2 million inhabitants.

Hong Kong is located in Southern China. Credit: Wikipedia

Since ancient times, Hong Kong had been ruled by the imperial China. However, in the 1839, the First Opium War broke out between Qing Dynasty and the British Empire, because of Qing’s refusal to import opium from Britain. However, Qing was quickly defeated and as a result, “Hong Kong Island was formally ceded in perpetuity to United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Treaty of Nanking” (History of Hong Kong). Since then, Hong Kong was a part of British territories, until the year of 1997.

In 1997, Hong Kong was transferred back to Chinese sovereignty, after 156 years of British colonial governance. This return, however, was more of a compromise than a submission. As you may know, in the 20th century, British Empire began to lose its control of global territories. Many countries, such as India, became independent due the decline of British Empire. Hong Kong also followed the trend, but the people there were reluctant to comply with the tyranny of Chinese communist government.

Hong Kong people enjoy much freedom that does not exist in mainland China. Credit: CNN

Consequently, it was agreed that under the name of one China only, Hong Kong was granted a 50-year special permission of running its own system. CGP Grey, one of my favorite Youtubers, made a great video explaining how the “One Country, Two Systems” policy works.

As 2047, the year that the special conditions are officially over, approaches, new agreement has to be made between China’s central government and Hong Kong officials. It is very hard to predict what will happen, because many Hong Kong young people feel negative about the Communist Party of China, as exemplified by the Umbrella Revolution in 2014. Yet, I believe Hong Kong will continue to be part of one legitimate China, as Hong Kong economy has benefited a lot from mainland China in recent years. It hurts more for Hong Kong to break apart from China, but this is just my biased opinion. Either way, there will certainly be some historical changes in Hong Kong in year of 2047, which will then serve as examples for Macau and Taiwan.

Let’s find out together.

 

Works Cited

One Country, Two Systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_country,_two_systems

History of Hong Kong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong#British_Crown_Colony:_1842.E2.80.931941

China’s official website: http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/dengxiaoping/103372.htm

3 thoughts on “One Country, Two Systems

  1. This is an interesting post. The intricacies of politics within nations that are so interconnected get so confusing sometimes. I knew some of the background of China, and that Taiwan split from it during a revolution, but I haven’t known much about Macau or Hong Kong. I think, culturally, these nations are so similar that it is hard for them to split politically and economically as well. We shall see how the nations’ relations pan out in the future.

  2. I think its a pretty messy situation for Hong Kong right now. They’ve been able to grow and prosper on their own for quite some time. Hopefully when the Chinese government steps back in it will be with a more laissez-faire approach and let them keep on keeping on – similar to the Romans. If China tries to step in with too much pressure, it could create friction between these economic powers as well as set the stage for more trouble when Macau and Taiwan’s terms come up. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out!

  3. It’s really cool how regions within the country itself use different economic systems all together. It was especially interesting for me to find out that these varied regions even have their own form of currency. My mother country of India was under British Rule for quite a few decades as well, but once regions eventually achieved sovereignty, they joined the country as a whole and did not want to be considered separate. I imagine the reason for this is that the newly freed regions did not find any problems with the existing form of government and economy unlike Hong Kong and other such areas in China.

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