This Blog is being censored in mainland China. Internet users cannot access to this Blog. This fact may illustrate some features of the current Chinese government and politics which are being discussed here during the last few weeks.

One Country, Three Systems

About twenty years ago the Communist government of China (officially People’s Republic of China) offered the Nationalist rulers in Taiwan (officially Republic of China) a formula for reunification similar to the one arranged for the handover of Hong Kong, which was labelled by Deng Xiaoping “one country, two systems”. However, during the last period Taiwan has liberalized and democratized and now it is much ahead of the institutional formulas which are really implemented in Hong Kong. The Hongkongers might prefer, in fact, to enjoy constitutional rules similar to those in Taiwan.

Ten years ago Hong Kong ceased being a British colony and became a “special administrative region” of China. The Chinese communists accepted that for 50 years, that is, until 2047, they would facilitate the development of the capitalist economy in Hong Kong (which is actually what they are trying to do in mainland China too) and would give Hongkongers broad political autonomy except in defence and foreign affairs. In reality Hong Kong looks much as a different country, having not only an outstanding economic and urban development, but its own passport, borders control, currency and co-official languages (Cantonese, more different from Mandarin than one could expect, and English, less popular than one could expect), while it is being submitted to close political control by the rulers in Beijing.

There were virtually free elections in Hong Kong in 1995, just two years before the British handover, for the first time in 150 years of colonial rule. But the invention was quickly dismantled by the Chinese government when it took over. Now Beijing maintains in Hong Kong a framework similar to the previous colonial experience. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong has formally wide powers analogous to those of the former colonial Governor. He is chosen every five years by an Election Committee formed of 800 members, mostly elected or appointed by business, professional, social and religious groups whose total number of voters encompasses about 5% of what would be universal suffrage. The Chief Executive is accountable and must report regularly to Beijing. Besides this, the Legislative Council is formed of 60 members, of whom 30 are indirectly chosen in “functional” constituencies of corporatist profile and limited franchise and 30 are elected in territorial constituencies. The pro-democracy parties usually collect about 60% of popular votes in the latter elections, but they find themselves in minority in the Council in front to the mostly pro-Beijing “functional” delegates.

Roughly speaking, during the last ten years Hongkongers have replaced the British colonial administration with the Chinese one. But the Basic Law of Hong Kong which was agreed by the British and the Chinese governments establishes that the “ultimate aim” of the system is to introduce universal suffrage elections. A few months ago the current Chief Executive released a ‘Green Paper on Constitutional Development’ proposing cosmetic changes, while pro-democracy legislators managed to agree on a plan to abolish the ‘functional’ constituencies by 2012 and elect all seats by a mixed system of proportional representation and plurality rule. In the midst of some open discussion, pro-Beijing officers are suggesting, however, that universal suffrage elections for the Chief Executive should be postponed to 2017 or perhaps 2022 and for the Legislative Council to 2020.

Meanwhile the political process in Taiwan has accelerated. For a long period the nationalist Kuomintang party maintained in the island an authoritarian regime, artfully supported by the fiction that most members of the Assembly represented mainland China –actually the same people who had been elected in 1947 remained in their seats for more than 40 years without re-election. They, however, eventually resigned, and the system was open to multiparty competition. In 2000 there was alternation in government and the first non-Kuomintang president was democratically elected.

The paradox is now this. In the coming year 2008, there will be democratic elections in Taiwan with high rivalry between candidates still pro-Chinese reunification and others pro-independence. A few months later in the year there will be nondemocratic legislative elections in Hong Kong too, with pro-Beijing and pro-democracy candidates running. For the Taiwanese, the existence of “two systems” is leading to “two countries”, while for the Hongkongers two actual countries are submitted to one system. Deng Xiaoping’s original formula has been dismissed on both fronts.

REFERENCES

Lam Waiman, Percy Luentim, Wilson Wong and Ian Holliday eds. Contemporary Hong Kong Politics: Governance in the Post-1997 Era. Hong Kong University Press, 2007.

‘The First Ten Years of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China’, special issue of The Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 29, 1, 2007.

Carine Lai and Christine Loh, From Nowhere to Nowhere: A Review of Constitutional Development. -Hong Kong 1997-2007. HK: Civic Exchange, 2007.

Green Paper on Constitutional Development, 2007: CLICK.

François Briatte said...

Hello Josep,

My blog is not blocked in China (or at least I believe so, but have not found a proper test to confirm it).

I have assembled three of your texts into a single PDF file, downloadable from this blog, which brings weekly news to French political scientists about their profession and its research agenda:

CLICK

My next step will be to host the file on my personal blog, phnk.com.
Both blogs should be allowed in China, although I suspect that they will not stay allowed for very long. I will keep you informed of any development.

Best regards,
François

http://sciencepolitique.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/sur-le-regime-politique-chinois/

Science politique en ligne

Sur le régime politique chinois

9 décembre 2007

Cette recension vient en soutien à Josep Colomer, dont l’excellent blog vient d’être censuré par les autorités chinoises. Le fichier qui suit est un copié-collé de trois de ses textes récents [1,2,3], réalisé avec son accord, et diffusé via ce blog afin de contourner l’interdiction chinoise. Les textes concernent la nature du régime politique chinois et ses changements concevables.Télécharger : colomer.pdf [13 pages] Cette recension est peu de choses – l’hébergeur de ce blog a déjà eu maille avec les autorités chinoises, et la diffusion du fichier en Chine restera limitée en toutes circonstances. Cette recension nous éloigne aussi de la science politique française. Mais je tenais à faire passer l’idée, en creux, qu’il manque une démarche revendicative et internationaliste au sein de la discipline.