A new episode of tensions between Taiwan and China. The Taipei government said on Tuesday, April 11, that Chinese warships had been spotted off the island, while Beijing’s major military maneuvers in the area were supposed to be completed.
For the time being, the island still escapes Chinese control, unlike Hong Kong and Macau, which are back under their control. However, the histories of these regions are different.
The Taiwanese regime emerged from the Chinese Civil War. And it ended in 1949 with the victory of the Communists, which forced the nationalists to retreat to the island in southern China. With more or less official support from the United States since then, they have been able to maintain control of it until today.
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The current separation of Taiwan and China is thus the result of a war largely won by the Red Army who failed, however, to deal the final blow to its enemy. The situation is different for Hong Kong and Macau, whose brief independence can be explained by their colonial histories.
Hong Kong, a former British colony
Hong Kong Island, located in southeastern China, became a British colony from the Treaty of Nanjing signed in 1842. This put an end to the First Opium War, which ended in 1842 with the victory of the United Kingdom over the Chinese Empire. From the Qing Dynasty.
The Kowloon Peninsula was ceded to the British in 1860. Finally, in 1898, China also granted a ninety-nine-year lease to the English for the new lands.
London managed to keep the island during the Maoist period, despite the tensions caused by the Cold War. In 1984, the British government agreed to give it back to China, as the area was not viable without the New Territories, over which English sovereignty was temporary.
Taiwan never belonged to the People’s Republic of China
The re-treatment occurred in 1997 and provided for significant autonomy for Hong Kong at least until 2047. In fact, Hong Kong’s liberal economic system did not allow the island to be brutally integrated into China. So the Communist Party adopted the “one country, two systems” strategy, which was later also proposed in Taiwan.
Macau, four hundred years of Portuguese occupation
However, the enactment of a new national security law in July 2020 undermines the independence of Hong Kong’s legal system from mainland China. However, the island maintains a specific status, that of a “Special Administrative Region”.
Share it with Macau. Like Hong Kong, the peninsula was also colonised. It was gradually occupied by the Portuguese since the 16th century. China has recognized Portugal’s permanent sovereignty since 1887. This lasted until 1966, when pro-communist riots pushed Lisbon into retreat.
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In 1987, China and Portugal agreed to return the territory to Beijing in December 1999. Like Hong Kong, its relations with the mainland are governed by the “one country, two systems” principle, and Macau enjoys a high degree of autonomy. And the Communist Party has guaranteed these particularities until 2049. For the Communist Party, the new priority is to impose a similar regime on Taiwan.
