"One China, Two Systems"... How does Beijing deal with "Taiwan and its sisters"?

Many historical and political events have produced special situations for several regions in their relationship with the People's Republic of China, as Beijing considers them an integral part of its territory, and sees its issues as an "internal affair", and deals with them on the principle of "one China, two systems", while some of these areas are considered (Taiwan). ) itself as an "independent state".

Taiwan .. the result of the civil war

The name of the island of Taiwan first appears in Chinese records after Emperor Ming (Cao Rui) sent a battalion to explore the region in AD 239.

It was colonized by the Dutch during the period 1624-1661, and then came under the administration of the Chinese Qing family from 1683 to 1895.

Since the 17th century, the region has received many Chinese immigrants, most of them from the Chinese "Huclo" or "Hakka" tribes.

In 1895 the Japanese Empire occupied Taiwan after it was part of Chinese territory in the First Sino-Japanese War, and returned to the rule of the Chinese Republic in 1945 after World War II.

That period coincided with the Chinese Civil War between the Chinese Republic regime and the Chinese Communist Party, and the Communist Party headed by former leader Mao Zedong won the war in 1949, and declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

The government of the "Komintang" (represented by the system of the Chinese Republic) fled to Taiwan, declared a "state" there and prohibited communication with the People's Republic of China.

Beijing considers the Taiwan issue left by the Chinese civil war, and says that with the support of the US government, "those who fled from China formed a separatist regime by force of arms in Taiwan," and believes that "the United States is fueling the conflict and fueling the remnants of the Chinese civil war by providing military support to the authorities in Taiwan since the 1950s." the last century".

In 1950, Taiwan became an ally of Washington in the war against China in Korea, and the United States signed with the Taiwan authorities in December 1954 the so-called "mutual defense treaty", and put Taiwan under its protection.

China considers the Taiwan issue "a purely internal matter of China, and the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should solve it themselves." It rejects the secession of Taiwan, and says it is a "Chinese province." Two Chinas" or "One China, One Taiwan" or "Taiwan Independence".

On October 25, 1971, Beijing was granted Taiwan's seat in the United Nations, and in March 1979, Washington established diplomatic relations with Beijing, and the United States - like all the international community - adhered to the one-China policy, recognizing only Beijing as a government legitimacy, which did not prevent it from establishing close economic and military relations with Taipei.

On November 2, 1987, Taiwanese were allowed to go to mainland China for family reunions, opening the way for trade exchanges.

In 1991, Taipei abolished measures establishing a state of war with China.

In June 1995, Beijing suspended negotiations for normalization in protest of Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's visit to the United States.

In 1996, China launched missiles near Taiwan's coast ahead of Taiwan's first direct universal presidential election on March 23, which was won by Lee Teng-hui.

On January 29, 2005, the first direct charter flights between China and Taiwan took place, as the Kuomintang Party lost power in March 2000 with the election of independence leader Chen Shui-bian as president (the first non-KMT president), who was re-elected in 2004.

On March 14, 2005, Beijing adopted an anti-secession law requiring recourse to “non-peaceful” means if Taiwan declared independence.

On April 29 of the same year, a meeting described as historic took place in Beijing between the leaders of the two parties (KMT leader Lian Chan and President Hu Jintao, leader of the Chinese Communist Party) for the first time since 1949.

On June 12, 2008, Beijing and Taipei resumed their dialogue, which was suspended in 1995 after Ma Ying-jeou, the KMT candidate for rapprochement with China, won the presidential election in March of the same year, and was re-elected in 2012.

On November 4, 2008, a series of economic agreements were signed between the two parties to establish air transport and to encourage tourism, and on June 29, 2010, a framework agreement for economic cooperation was signed between Beijing and Taipei.

On February 11, 2014, Beijing and Taipei held an intergovernmental dialogue for the first time since 1949, and on November 7, 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Singapore with Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou for the first time since 1949.

Relations between Taiwan and China returned to tension in August 2022 after the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, a visit that China denounced and threatened to respond to, and announced military exercises in its wake and imposed sanctions on American figures, including Pelosi.

Hong Kong..Autonomy after British colonialism

Hong Kong was part of China until it came under British occupation after the First Opium War, which China was forced to cede under the Nan Jing Agreement of 1839.

In 1898 the Treaty of "Expansion of the Hong Kong Territory" was signed between Great Britain and China, providing for the lease of areas of the territory of Hong Kong to Britain for a period of one hundred years, giving Britain full entitlement to fortify the region militarily.

In 1949, during the civil war in China, large numbers of Chinese flocked to the region, and many Chinese companies moved their headquarters to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong subsequently turned into an important industrial area, became a special economic zone of the People's Republic of China, and was the first source of foreign investment in China.

The region remained under British control until China announced on July 1, 1997, the resumption of the exercise of its sovereignty over Hong Kong as a special administrative region, directly under the Chinese central government.

On December 19, 1984, Chinese Prime Minister Zhao Xiang and British Prime Minister Margit Thatcher signed in Beijing the "Sino-British Joint Declaration" to transfer the ownership of Hong Kong to China, and it entered into force on May 27, 1985.

The British government promised to hand over the territory to the People's Republic of China on the same day, and the central government of Beijing pledged to keep Hong Kong's capitalist system unchanged for "at least" 50 years until 2047.

The Chinese government adopted the implementation of the "one country, two systems" system in the Hong Kong region, which aimed - as it announced - to "unify the country peacefully, and ensure that the country adheres to the socialist system while maintaining the capitalist system, with the possibility of enjoying a degree of autonomy."

Hong Kong has obtained privileges, including extensive independence, freedom of expression, and an independent judiciary. Hong Kong participates in many international organizations and conferences in the name of "Chinese Hong Kong".

In 2002, the Hong Kong Executive Administration proposed a law that criminalizes calls for secession and demonstrations against the Chinese Communist Party, and authorizes the government to search, arrest and punish suspects, and this law caused large demonstrations in the region, which led to its repeal.

On September 26, 2014, the city of Hong Kong witnessed widespread protests against the leader of the executive authority, Leung Chun-ying, appointed by the central authority in the capital, Beijing, which was called the "Umbrella Movement".

Tens of thousands of students and activists demonstrated to demand "the full implementation of democracy and the guarantee of the right to free voting", with the aim of electing a new president of the executive branch in 2017.

Soon the student protests were mixed with other large-scale mass protests called "Occupy Centre".

In June 2019, demonstrations erupted from Tsuen Wan District to protest against a bill in Parliament that would allow Hong Kong authorities to send criminal suspects to trial in China.

Despite the suspension of the project, protests continued to condemn the police practices against them, and spread widely in the region, including Hong Kong airport, and two million people came out to demand democratic reform, and China condemned these protests and described them as "terrorist acts."

After the massive demonstrations in 2019 against "Beijing's influence", Chinese President Xi Jinping signed the "National National Security for Hong Kong" law on June 30, 2020, and it was included in the "Basic Law", which has been the constitution in the region since 1997, and voted 3 Thousands of National People's Assembly deputies in favor of conducting the law.

The law aims to suppress the activities of "separatism and terrorism", confront "subversion", and restore stability to the region by preventing any "interference and conspiracies with foreign and foreign powers or demands for secession," the Xinhua News Agency announced.

Then US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would begin canceling trade exemptions granted to Hong Kong, saying, "Hong Kong no longer has sufficient autonomy to justify the special treatment we have been giving it since its return" to China.

In addition to America, Britain, Canada and Australia have condemned the Chinese government's decision on the "National Security Law", saying it threatens freedoms and violates the 1984 Sino-British agreement on the city's autonomy.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman responded that "Hong Kong is Chinese, and Hong Kong affairs are part of China's internal affairs."

Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun said Washington's request for a Security Council meeting on Hong Kong was unfounded, noting that Hong Kong's national security legislation was an internal matter of which the Security Council had nothing to do with.

Macau... the commercial base of Portuguese colonialism

In 1553, the Portuguese requested some land from the Chinese government to set up a trading base, and obtained approval from local Chinese officials to stay temporarily in Macau.

In 1573 the Portuguese began paying the Chinese government rent for the lands they traded on, and for 300 years until the Opium War, the Ming and Qing Chinese governments maintained their authority over Macau and the area was subject to Chinese law.

The Ming and Qing governments allowed the Portuguese to self-administer their social and economic affairs within Macau, and did not interfere in their own internal affairs.

In 1583, it allowed the Portuguese to form a senate to solve their own problems, on the basis of their recognition of Chinese sovereignty over the region and that this independent formation was not political.

After the Opium War and the Chinese ceded Hong Kong, the Portuguese demanded that they be exempted from paying the annual rent for the lands they had requested in 1553, and gradually they began to occupy Macau.

In 1887 the Chinese government was forced to sign the "Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Friendship and Commerce", according to which the Portuguese obtained the right to settle and permanently control Macau, as he appointed a Portuguese governor for the region and China remained politically in control.

In 1928, the Chinese Foreign Ministry represented by the Kuomintang government notified the Portuguese side that it had formally abrogated the treaty, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 the Chinese government announced the abolition of "all unequal treaties".

In March 1972, the Permanent Representative of China to the Special Committee on Decolonization sent a letter stating China's principled position on the regions of Hong Kong and Macao.

On February 8, 1979, the governments of China and Portugal agreed to designate Macau as a Chinese territory under Portuguese administration, with the matter being settled amicably in the future.

In June 1986, China and Portugal began negotiations on the Macau issue, which ended with the signing of the "Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration" on April 13, 1987 in Beijing, which stipulated that China would resume its sovereignty over Macao from November 20, 1999.

On April 13, 1988, a commission was set up to draft the Basic Law for the Macao Administrative Region, and on March 31, 1993, the National Assembly of China passed the Basic Law for the Macao Administrative Region with the official emblem and flag.

On December 20, 1999, that period was called the transitional period, in which Portugal began to gradually transfer power to China, and the adoption of Chinese as the official language of the region.

On May 15, 1999 the first government of the Macao Administrative Region of China was formed, and Edmund Ho Hao was appointed as the first president of the region, and the Chinese government adopted the application of the "one country, two systems" system as in Hong Kong.

Tibet.. Decades of tension

The history of Tibet dates back to more than 18 thousand years BC.

Some historical accounts say that a tribal leader named "Songzan Ganpo" established a kingdom in the "Zingbo Valley" (between the center and south of the Tibetan plateau) in 620 AD, and built the "Podala" Palace and included 999 rooms, and married Princess Wen Chen, the daughter of a Chinese emperor from Tang Dynasty.

In the eighth century, Tibet became an important military state in Asia, until the Mongols invaded it, and the monarchy was undermined, and a theocratic system was established in the country that still exists.

In modern history, between 1913 and 1914, a conference was held in Smila in northern India to normalize relations between Britain, Tibet and China, and one of its results was the demarcation of the border between India and Tibet in what was known as the “McMahon Line”, but China did not sign it, so it remained a subject of controversy and disagreement between China and India.

On May 23, 1951, China and the local government of Tibet signed the "Methods for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" Agreement, which is referred to as the "Seventeen Articles Agreement".

The region became an autonomous region within the framework of the People's Republic of China, until a popular uprising broke out in 1959 demanding independence, when the "rebels" attacked the Chinese army, and declared independence on March 19, 1959.

But China stopped the uprising, and expelled the leader of the Tibetan Buddhists demanding secession from China, the Dalai Lama, who then fled to India and set up his government there. China appointed the "Bashan Lama" as his successor.

The Dalai Lama settled in Dhar Masala in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, where he established a central administration of the Tibetan government in exile, and the Tibetan parliament was established in 1960. A constitution for Tibet was promulgated in 1963 with the aim of achieving the "demand for independence", which gradually turned into a demand for broader autonomy.

In September 1965, the first meeting of the First People's Congress of Tibet was held, and Api Awang Jimi, the people's deputy, was elected chairman of the regional people's committee, and it officially became the Tibet Autonomous Region.

In 1987, the Dalai Lama presented a 5-point plan for peace, aiming to make Tibet a region of peace in the middle of the troubled region of the Himalayas. Responses to the plan varied, and it was met positively in the West, unlike China, which strongly rejected it.

Since 2008, protests against "Chinese oppression" have erupted, the demonstrators said, and later developed until Buddhist monks began a series of "self-immolation protests" by setting themselves on fire as a means of pressure and demanding "independence" for the Tibetans, which started from Sichuan and then spread to the rest of the Chinese provinces. .

The protests sparked unrest that disrupted the international relay of the Olympic torch, and as a result, China was exposed to calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008.

China responded by launching one of the largest security operations since the operation it launched against the "Tianmen Movement" in 1989.

In 2011, the Dalai Lama renounced his role as the leader of the Tibetan movement abroad, and was satisfied with his spiritual role.

China says that "beginning in the 13th century, the Chinese central government has continued to exercise its sovereignty over Tibet, and the Tibet region has never been an independent country, and there has been no government of any country in the world that recognizes Tibet as an independent country."