Mainland China The concept of Chinese unification was developed in the 1970s as part of the CCP's strategy to address the "
Taiwan issue" as China started to normalize
foreign relations with a number of countries including the United States and Japan. According to the state-run
China Internet Information Center, in 1979, the
National People's Congress published the
Message to Compatriots in Taiwan () which included the term "Chinese reunification" as an ideal for
Cross-Strait relations. In 1981, the chairman of the People's Congress Standing Committee
Ye Jianying announced the "Nine Policies" for China's stance on Cross-Strait relations, with "Chinese Peaceful Unification" () as the first policy. According to Xinhua, since then, "
one country, two systems" and "Chinese reunification" have been emphasized at every
National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party as the principles to deal with
Hong Kong,
Macau and
Taiwan. "One Country, Two Systems" is specifically about China's policy towards post-colonial Hong Kong and Macao, and "Chinese Unification" is specifically about Taiwan. Taiwan has also been offered the resolution of "One Country, Two Systems”.
Taiwan Taiwan has a complicated history of being at least partially occupied and administered by larger powers including the
Dutch East India Company, the
Kingdom of Tungning (purporting to be a continuation of the
Southern Ming), the Qing dynasty and the Empire of Japan. Taiwan first came under direct Chinese control when it was invaded by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in 1683. The island remained under Qing rule until 1895 when it was ceded to the Empire of Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Following the
Axis powers' defeat in World War II in 1945, the Kuomintang-led Republic of China gained control of Taiwan. At the de facto end of the Chinese Civil War in 1950, KMT and CCP government faced each other across the Strait, with each aiming for a military takeover of the other. From 1928 to 1942, the CCP maintained that Taiwan was a separate nation. In a 1937 interview with
Edgar Snow,
Mao Zedong stated "we will extend them (the Koreans) our enthusiastic help in their struggle for independence. The same thing applies for Taiwan." The
irredentist narrative emphasizing the importance of a unified
Greater China area, which purportedly include Taiwan, arose in both the Kuomintang and the CCP in the years during and after the civil war. For the PRC, the claim of the Greater China area was part of a nationalist argument for territorial integrity. In the civil war years it set the communist movement apart from the ROC, which had lost
Manchuria, the ancestral homeland of the Qing emperors, to Japan in 1932.
Rise of Tangwai and Taiwanese nationalism From the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1950 until the mid-1970s the concept of unification was not the main subject of discourse between the governments of the PRC and the ROC. The Kuomintang believed that they would, probably with American help, one day retake mainland China, while Mao Zedong's communist regime would collapse in a popular uprising and the Kuomintang forces would be welcomed. By the 1970s, the Kuomintang's authoritarian military dictatorship in Taiwan, led by the
Chiang family was becoming increasingly untenable due to the popularity of the
Tangwai movement and Taiwanese nationalism. In 1970, then-Vice Premier,
Chiang Ching-kuo survived an
assassination attempt in
New York City by
Cheng Tzu-tsai and
Peter Huang, both members of the
World United Formosans for Independence. In 1976,
Wang Sing-nan sent a
mail bomb to then-Governor of Taiwan Province
Hsieh Tung-min, who suffered serious injuries to both hands as a result. The Kuomintang's heavy-handed oppression in the
Kaohsiung Incident, alleged involvement in the
Lin family massacre and the murders of
Chen Wen-chen and
Henry Liu, and the self-immolation of
Cheng Nan-jung galvanized the Taiwanese community into political actions and eventually led to majority rule and democracy in Taiwan. The concept of unification replaced the concept of liberation by the PRC in 1979 as it embarked, after Mao's death, on the
reform and opening up and pursued a more pragmatic foreign policy. In Taiwan, the possibility of the ROC retaking mainland China became increasingly remote in the 1970s, particularly after the
ROC's expulsion from the United Nations in 1971, the establishment of diplomatic relations between the PRC and United States in 1979, and Chiang Kai-shek's death in 1975. Control over Taiwan and its deeper eastern waters would also provide the
People's Liberation Army Navy's
ballistic missile submarines with less
detectable access to the wider Pacific where they would serve as an important component of a credible
second strike capability for the PRC.
"One country, two systems" proposal 's visit.
Deng Xiaoping developed the principle of
one country, two systems in relation to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. According to the 1995 proposal outlined by
CCP General Secretary and
paramount leader Jiang Zemin, Taiwan would lose sovereignty and the right to self-determination, but would keep its armed forces and send a representative to be the "number two leader" in the PRC central government. Thus, under this proposal, the Republic of China would become fully defunct. In May 1998, the
Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party convened a Work Conference on Taiwan Affairs which stated that the whole party and the whole nation should work together for peaceful unification. Few Taiwanese are in support of the One Country, Two Systems policy while some unification supporters argued to uphold the
status quo until mainland China democratized and industrialized to the same level as Taiwan. In the 2000 presidential election, independent candidate
James Soong proposed a
European Union-style relation with mainland China (this was echoed by
Hsu Hsin-liang in 2004) along with a non-aggression pact. In the
2004 presidential election,
Lien Chan proposed a
confederation-style relationship. Beijing objected to the plan, claiming that Taiwan was already part of China, and was not a state and, as such, could not form a confederation with it. Developments in Hong Kong have caused the population of Taiwan in recent years to find "One China, Two Systems" to be "unpersuasive, unappealing, and even untrustworthy."
Stasis Unification proposals were not actively floated in Taiwan and the issue remained moot under President Chen Shui-bian, who refused to accept talks under Beijing's pre-conditions. Under the PRC administration of
Hu Jintao, incorporating Taiwan lost emphasis amid the reality that the DPP presidency in Taiwan would be held by pro-independence President Chen until 2008. Instead, the emphasis shifted to meetings with politicians who opposed independence. A series of
high-profile visits in 2005 to China by the leaders of the three pan-Blue Coalition parties was seen as an implicit recognition of the status quo by the PRC government. Notably, Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan's trip was marked by unedited coverage of his speeches and tours (and some added positive commentary) by government-controlled media and meetings with high level officials including Hu Jintao. Similar treatment (though marked with less historical significance and media attention) was given during subsequent visits by PFP chairman James Soong and New Party chairman Yok Mu-ming. The CCP and the Pan-Blue Coalition parties emphasized their common ground in renewed negotiations under the 1992 consensus, opening the
Three Links, and opposing Taiwan's formal independence. The PRC passed an Anti-Secession Law shortly before Lien's trip. While the Pan-Green Coalition held mass rallies to protest the codification of using military force to retake Taiwan, the Pan-Blue Coalition was largely silent. The language of the Anti-Secession Law was clearly directed at the independence supporters in Taiwan (termed "'Taiwan independence' secessionist forces" in the law) and designed to be somewhat acceptable to the Pan-Blue Coalition. It did not explicitly declare Taiwan to be part of the People's Republic of China but instead used the term "China" on its own, allowing definitional flexibility. It made repeated emphasis of promoting peaceful national unification but left out the concept of "one country, two systems" and called for negotiations in "steps and phases and with flexible and varied modalities" in recognition of the concept of eventual rather than immediate incorporation of Taiwan. Under both President Chen and President Ma Ying-jeou, the main political changes in cross-straits relationship involved closer economic ties and increased business and personal travel. Such initiatives were met by grassroots oppositions such as the
Sunflower Student Movement, which successfully scuttled
Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement in 2014. President Ma Ying-Jeou advocated for the revitalization of Chinese culture, as in the re-introduction of
traditional Chinese in texts to mainland China used in Taiwan and historically in China. It expressed willingness to allow the usage
simplified Chinese in informal writing. Starting in 2017, the
All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots, a group of Taiwanese residing in the PRC, took on a more prominent role in the CCP's
united front efforts directed at Taiwan. == Official stance of the People's Republic of China ==