The recent decade witnessed leaps and bounds in rolling out creative and effective measures to put “one country, two systems” into practice. What has happened in Hong Kong has proved the vitality and versatility of the framework. It has been widely recognized as a Hong Kong policy with Taiwan implications, which, with its win-win strategy in practice, will be the best solution for complete national reunification.
When Deng Xiaoping first launched the proposal of “one county, two systems” in 1978, which was applied to Hong Kong later, the world was in the middle of the Cold War. The conflict of ideologies between capitalism and socialism was a “dead or alive” game. Based on his great experience of revolution, Deng found out that ideological conflict was completely unnecessary. When the British occupation in Hong Kong approached its end on June 30, 1997, China took the opportunity to launch the then-paramount leader’s initiative of “one country, two systems” to successfully resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. The entrenched capitalist system in the city has been kept intact ever since. Thus the practice in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has convinced the world that the ideological conflict is avoidable, while a win-win situation can be worked out with the joint efforts of contributors of both capitalism and socialism. Since 1997, when the policy of “one country, two systems” was first introduced to the HKSAR, several policies have been rolled out to benefit both the capitalist system in the city and the socialist system on the Chinese mainland.
First, the growth of market is remarkable both in Hong Kong and in the rest of the country. Hong Kong used to rely on the overseas market, but the reunification with the motherland allows the business sector in the HKSAR to tap into the huge market in the north, from finance to construction industries.
The practice in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has convinced the world that the ideological conflict is avoidable, while a win-win situation can be worked out with the joint efforts of contributors of both capitalism and socialism
The great volume of exports and imports exalted Hong Kong to one of the largest economic centers in the world. In terms of finance, Hong Kong has been one of the top international financial hubs in the world, with its stock market being well-connected to the stock markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen. In all, thanks to the “one country, two systems” framework, the capitalist Hong Kong is beneficial not only to the whole of China, but also to the world.
Second, the practice of “one country, two systems” in the past 25 years bestowed upon the HKSAR more functional flexibility. Taking its legal system as an example, the common law system in Hong Kong provides an opportunity for the city to be shaped into an international arbitration center.
Also, according to Article 9 of the Basic Law, the Chinese language can be used in the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the HKSAR government, making the city the only one in the world where the common law system can operate on a bilingual basis. Before Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, the British rulers had tried to minimize the use of the Chinese language on all fronts, from education to legislation. Before the reunification, Hong Kong schools that adopted Chinese as the medium of teaching were fewer than those that used English as the medium of teaching. The practice of “one country, two systems” has given rise to trilingual education in school education; students can communicate in English, Cantonese and Mandarin in accordance with the situation. Furthermore, the biliteracy and trilingualism in Hong Kong allow the city’s graduates to adapt to all major cities in the world and the mainland readily.
According to Article 24 of the Basic Law, every Hong Kong resident, no matter their ethnicity, is endowed with equal rights and equal status to live and work in the city. Taking the portion of non-Chinese ethnicities in the city’s demographics into consideration, Hong Kong is an inclusive society of diversity and equality. Finally, under British rule, the local people were not given equal rights to elect members of the legislature. However, democracy has developed by leaps and bounds after the establishment of the HKSAR, and the aim of universal suffrage was once ready to be accomplished had the opposition lawmakers supported the “8.31 decision” of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress made on Aug 31, 2014, which set the framework for the election of the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2017 and members of the Legislative Council in 2016.
The author is the dean of Taima Journalism and Information Academy, Malaysia, and the former head of the Department of Government and Public Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.