Mainland China's Policy Towards Reunification with Taiwan 1979
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ONE COUNTRY TWO SYSTEMS MAINLAND CHINA'S POLICY TOWARDS REUNIFICATION WITH TAIWAN 1979 - CHING-YUN YANG THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE PH.D. LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 1992 UMI Number: U062759 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U062759 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ( M G S g S R 7 0 1 ^ ABSTRACT This research examines mainland China's reunification policy towards Taiwan with a particular focus on the years of 1979-1987. Following the establishment of Sino-U.S. diplomatic relations in January 1979,Communist leaders in Beijing carried out a series of intensive campaigns to woo the Nationalists in Taiwan to accept peace talks and to re-unify Taiwan and mainland China under the formula of "One Country Two Systems". The formula implies that, after unification, two different systems will remain - Socialism on the mainland and Capitalism in Taiwan for at least 50 years. Although Beijing's reunification policy has been further developed and persistently propagated, its efforts, so far, have met with little success. The Taiwan issue is by no means solved, neverthe less, the peaceful initiatives from Beijing have significantly changed Taiwan-China relations as well as the situation in East Asia. The questions this study is seeking to answer are: What are the origins and development of contention over the issue of Taiwan ? In the period 1979-8 7, what have been the main factors which have led China's decision-makers to change their position on Taiwan from that of an antagonist seeking military liberation to one of a seeming conciliator seeking benign-sounding peaceful reunification ? To what extent has the "One Country Two Systems" policy been effective in shaping Taiwan-China relations ? In what sense does the policy theoretically and practically modify the continuing contest over the separation of Taiwan and China ? Internationally, how has the "One Country Two Systems" formula been applied to solve the issues of Hongkong and Macao, as they have become important models for the future settlement of the Taiwan problem ? And how has the policy been conditioned by Washington-Beijing and Washington-Taibei relations ? Because these questions are closely interlinked, the study makes detailed review from international and intranational perspectives so as to disentangle the complexities of the Taiwan issue. Although the policy readjustment made in 1987 by the Taipei government in response to the PRC peaceful proposal signalled a crucial change on the route of China's national reunification and in relations between Taiwan and the mainland, the One Country Two Systems formula, as the study argues, has continued to fall short of providing an acceptable political solution of the Taiwan issue. However, as long as the Chinese Communists are in power, it seems certain that the formula will be maintained as their paramount principle for managing China-Taiwan relations. 2 CONTENTS Page Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 6 Chapter one : The Character of the Taiwan Issue. A. A case of a Divided Nation 17 B. Uncertainty of international legal status 24 C. Impasse of nationalism and separatism 31 D. Conjunctions of China's strategic relations with international powers 38 E. Ideological polemics of Capitalism and Communism 44 F. Summary 4 8 Notes to Chapter One 49 Chapter two : Historical Development of the Taiwan Issue Before 1971. t A. Review of the international history of Taiwan before 1945 55 B. Chinese Nationalist rule, Civil War and Taiwan 1945 - 49 63 C. The Korean War and Taiwan 1950-53 70 D. Testing of the new modalities 1954 - 58 79 E. The stable crisis 1959 - 71 85 Notes to Chapter Two 93 Chapter three : Changes from Liberation by Force to Peaceful Reunification Before 1979. A. The CPC's Taiwan policy phase one, 1928-49 98 B. The CPC's Taiwan policy phase two, 1949-78 106 C. Sino-US reconciliation 1972-78 113 D. Death of old guard and political changes in 120 China and Taiwan 127 E. Sino-US normalization and One China policy Notes to Chapter Three 133 Chapter four : The Formation and Development of One Country Two Systems proposal 1979 - 84 A. Origins of One Country Two Systems 138 B. The theory of One Country Two Systems 145 3 Page C. The character of One Country Two Systems 152 D. The legal basis of One Country Two Systems 158 E. Other models and One Country Two Systems 168 Notes to Chapter Four 172 Chapter five: The Applications and Implementations of One Country Two Systems - The Hongkong & Macao Solution and the Taiwan Issue 1984 - 87. A. The Hongkong issue and Sino-British negotiations 178 B. The Sino-British Agreement and One Country Two Systems 184 C. The Macao's solution and One Country Two Systems 191 D. Problems of the Hongkong issue and China 195 E. The Hongkong-Macao model and the Taiwan issue 203 Notes to Chapter Five 209 Chapter six : The U.S. and One Country Two Systems in the 1980s A. The Taiwan issue and the US strategic association with the PRC 1980 - 82 216 B. The disputes over Arms sales and US "readjustment" 1982 - 84 222 C . Development of Sino-American relations and its implications for China's reunification 1984-87 230 D. Washington-Taibei relations and reunification 240 E. Summary 248 Notes to Chapter Six 250 Chapter seven : Taiwan's Responses to the Policy of One Country Two Systems 1979 - 87. A. The KMT's official attitude towards One Country Two Systems. 256 B. Taiwan's foreign policy and One Country Two Systems 268 C. One Country Two Systems and Taiwan's self-defence strategy 278 D. One Country Two Systems and Taiwan's political development. 285 Notes to Chapter Seven 291 Chapter eight : Conclusion Notes to Chapter Eight 310 Bibliography 312 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many people for their help and care over this study; indeed, they are too numerous to list them all. However, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Michael B. Yahuda, for his outstanding intellectual guidance and invaluable advice while I carried out this research. My debts to Mr. Li Shenzhi, the former Vice-President of China Academy of Social Sciences, and Mr. Chen Xiaolu, the former Chief Secretary of the Political Structure Reform Group of the Centre Committee of the CPC are also great. I have benefited a lot from materials they provided, as well as discussions / interviews they arranged. Finally, special thanks are due to Hui-fen, my wife, and En-ze (Jasmina) my daughter. Without their love and support in the past years, this research would not have been completed. 5 1 NTRODUCTION The reunification of Taiwan with mainland China is a complex issue in Chinese politics as well as in international relations. The issue not only has broad political, economic, strategic and moral ramifications for the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan, but it also contains crucial factors which potentially could destabilise the area of East Asia. Ever since the founding of the PRC in 1949, relations between Taiwan and mainland China have been hostile, as their rulers each vowed to annihilate the other side. All peaceful and, indeed, non-peaceful, efforts in the search for an acceptable and lasting solution which would allow the two communities to live in tranquillity, or provide a consensus in the international domain, have so far failed to produce results. However, the establishment of Sino-American diplomatic relations in early 1979 created a new situation in the Taiwan Straits area, enabling the Chinese Communists to present to their long-term enemy, the Nationalists, an ostensibly benign initiative for the reunification issue. In proposing a peaceful settlement of the question of China's reunification, the PRC relinquished the long-familiar cry of "liberating Taiwan by force" and adopted instead a new, sweet- sounding term "peaceful reunification of the motherland". The new initiative by mainland China for reunification with Taiwan was soon to be encapsulated in the formula "One Country Two Systems". Despite the principle that Socialist China should not accommodate within itself a centre of Capitalism, the urge for national unity has pushed the Communist Party of China (CPC) to make, what from its perspective,j/S a major concession on this point: that as long as Beijing's claim to sovereignty over Taiwan is acknowledged,the PRC will allow Taiwan to retain its existing political & economic system. So, by putting together the terms of One Country and Two Systems, the CPC is proclaiming its pledge that the two different systems - Socialism in mainland China and Capitalism in Taiwan (and in Hongkong & Macao) will be maintained for a certain period under the aegis of the PRC. This study examines the origins and development of the PRC's reunification policy towards Taiwan, focusing particularly on the years of 1979-8 7. Since the PRC's reunification policy is intri cately tied to other factors, such as political legitimacy(or the mandate for ruling China), Beijing's external