China's Relations with Hong Kong and Taiwan

Abstract

National reunification is one of the Beijing leadership's topmost priorities, and the People's Republic of China (PRC) will take over control of Hong Kong in 1997. In recent years, the PRC has blocked Hong Kong's democratic reform and increasingly meddled in local Hong Kong affairs to strengthen Chinese control. These actions have exacerbated Hong Kong's crisis of confidence, causing a severe brain drain and flight of capital from the colony. In Taiwan, the accession to office in 1988 by President Lee Teng-hui, a native Taiwanese, and the growing democratization of Taiwan's politics and power structure, with calls for Taiwanese independence, are worrisome to Beijing. Hence the PRC authorities are pulling out all stops, including a low-keyed threat of force, to forestall separatism and press the government in Taipei to come to the negotiation table. Years before Hong Kong's reversion to China in 1997, Beijing seems likely to intensify the reunification campaign toward Taiwan. Should the PRC use coercion against Taipei, Beijing and Washington would be on a collision course, because the United States has a strong interest in Taiwan's stability, security, and continuous prosperity.