Sunday, June 4, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Beijing’s heavy-handed approach to Taiwan, Hong Kong misguided: Steve Tsang in the Vancouver Sun

January 16, 2018
in Centre for Advancing Canada's Interests Abroad, Columns, Dragon at the Door, In the Media, Indo-Pacific, Latest News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

Beijing’s forceful methods of dealing with Taiwan and Hong Kong are detrimental to all parties, writes Steve Tsang.  

By Steve Tsang, Jan. 16, 201Chinese Communist Party8

With his country’s power and influence reaching new heights globally, President Xi Jinping has made it clear that both Hong Kong and Taiwan need to embrace “mother China.” Yet taking an assertive approach is counter-productive.

Beijing is worried about Hong Kong because of the appearance of a demand among its young people for self-determination, which is regarded as a nascent independence movement. Any such movement is deemed an assault on the “core national interest.”

China’s objective is to nip this in the bud. Top leaders therefore openly warn the young people of Hong Kong against using the Chinese promise of a “high degree of autonomy” as a basis for confrontation.

Beijing works on the assumption that the young activists can be intimidated or their parents frightened. This is meant to be supplemented by “patriotic education” or brainwashing.

The Chinese government can’t be more wrong. This failure reflects in part a tightening of control under Xi Jinping. While a local sense of identity has long been in the making in Hong Kong, the advent of a clarion call for self-determination is a new development. It didn’t exist five years ago.

In an important sense the young people’s call for self-determination is an unintended consequence of an earlier Chinese policy to tighten control over Hong Kong.

Unlike their parents’ generation who witnessed the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, young people of Hong Kong don’t really understand what the Chinese government would do to stay in power.

The increasingly forceful Chinese policy will only put Hong Kong-Mainland relations in a vicious circle. Chinese intimidation breeds resistance in Hong Kong, which causes heightened concern in Beijing.

The best way to deal with Hong Kong’s nascent movement for self-determination is to make it unnecessary. Proscribing it will not make it disappear.

Chinese leaders can break this vicious circle by working with Hong Kong to reinstate a mutually tolerable framework, under the original conception of “one country, two systems.” Hong Kong citizens understand that Hong Kong’s survival as a Special Administrative Region will be put at risk should it elect a chief executive unacceptable to Beijing.

The best way to deal with Hong Kong’s nascent movement for self-determination is to make it unnecessary. Proscribing it will not make it disappear.

What underpins China’s approach toward Hong Kong is also driving its policy toward Taiwan. The Chinese government chooses to see the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration of Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei as inherently unfriendly and untrustworthy.

Yet, at her inauguration as president a year ago, Tsai went out of her way to acknowledge the historical events of 1992 that provided a basis for the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to fudge their differences and avoid confrontation. This is what former Taiwan official Su Chi called “the 1992 consensus.”

However, the Chinese leadership soon required Tsai to accept publicly China’s definition of “the 1992 consensus.” Beijing then punished Taiwan for electing Tsai, by dramatically reducing the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan and by mounting pressure on third states to humiliate Taiwan internationally.

In so doing the Chinese have ignored the reality on the ground. To begin with, Tsai hasn’t actually departed in a significant way from her Kuomintang predecessor’s Mainland policy. “The 1992 consensus,” which President Ma Ying-jeou embraced, was an agreement to disagree. The “one-China principle” he supported was the Kuomintang version, which doesn’t include accepting PRC jurisdiction over Taiwan.

In democratic Taiwan any leader who openly accepts the PRC’s definition of “the 1992 consensus” and “one-China principle” commits electoral suicide. Tsai can’t do so. By making an impossible demand, the Chinese government only pushes Tsai farther away.

While Tsai will continue to respond in a restrained way to limit damage on Taiwanese interests, the young people of Hong Kong are likely to push back. Beijing holds the initiative in both cases. It has the scope to ease pressure on Hong Kong and thus avoid a slow-motion train wreck, and ease pressure on Tsai and avoid a cross-strait confrontation.

It’s indeed in the interest of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the rest of the world that it would do so. But there is no sign Xi Jinping will act accordingly.

Steve Tsang is director of the China Institute, SOAS University of London, U.K. This article is part of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Dragon at the Door series.

Tags: Dragon at the DoorHong KongTaiwan
Previous Post

“Union of the Colonies” – Speech by the Honourable Provincial Secretary Charles Tupper, April 10, 1865

Next Post

Is Democracy in Peril? Speer on CBC

Related Posts

Ukraine must be victorious, for all of our sakes: Balkan Devlen for Inside Policy
Columns

Ukraine’s right to self-defence is self-evident: Chris Alexander in the Globe and Mail

June 2, 2023
Trudeau, Ford to blame for Stellantis shakedown: Aaron Wudrick in the National Post
Columns

Trudeau, Ford to blame for Stellantis shakedown: Aaron Wudrick in the National Post

June 2, 2023
Canada’s inadequate defence research funding is more than just a security risk: Richard Shimooka in the Hub
Columns

Canada’s inadequate defence research funding is more than just a security risk: Richard Shimooka in the Hub

June 1, 2023
Next Post
Is Democracy in Peril? Speer on CBC

Is Democracy in Peril? Speer on CBC

Newsletter Signup

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.