One China
On July 9, 1999, Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui changed his mind, and decided that he was the president of a country after all. Lee declared that relations between China and Taiwan should be conducted on a "special state-to-state" basis. Until that point, officials on both sides of the Taiwan Straits had clung to the "One China" policy, the idea that both the People's Republic of China and Taiwan were really one nation, and their deep ideological, political, and economic divisions merely a small diplomatic spat to be settled peacefully by diplomatic means.
Twenty five years of continuing this policy made it no less likely that the two sides of the one China would one day suddenly remember their national brotherhood, kiss, and make up. In fact, tensions have remained high for the entirety of that period, with both sides competing for international recognition, a race the mainland leads commandingly, and trade dollars, where Taiwan is winning by an increasingly narrower margin.
Taiwan's economy is among the top 15 in the world. But as China grows economically, and more companies decide to risk their contracts in the unpredictable mainland economic system for the potentially tremendous upside, this supposedly communist country is starting to catch up to its island brother's monetary might. China, determined eventually to absorb what it considers a temporarily renegade province, has maintained its One China ideology consistently, refusing to recognize the possibility (indeed, the actual reality) that Taiwan is a separate nation, with a separate economy, political system, tradition, and even to an extent language and culture.
For China, the One China policy is about ideology. Granted, China would like to profit from the economic prowess of its renegade, and had little trouble accepting the decadent capitalism of Hong Kong in return for, well, the decadent capitalism of Hong Kong. But at stake for China is more than just money; it is the very essence of belief that defines its brand of 21st century communism. Marx and Lenin would hardly recognize this communism for its monetarist nature, and Stalin would hardly recognize it for the continually (albeit slowly) expanding freedoms of entrepreneurship that China is allowing.
China sees itself as representative of a different ideology, a mix of strong political leadership, Confucian loyalty to state and family, and a controlled market economy. "One China" is not just a political expression, but a vocalization of what it means to be a People's Republic person. Because the issue cuts so deep, China has been lambasting Lee Teng-hui and thoughts of Taiwanese independence at every opportunity.
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