Xi’s Promise to Taiwan Sounds Like a Threat
China’s president cites Hong Kong’s system as a model.
The ''Vibrant Express'' train in Hong Kong, Sept. 23, 2018. PHOTO: LUI SIU WAI/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS
Xi Jinping wants to coax Taiwan into “national reunification.” The Chinese president gave a speech Wednesday touting “one country, two systems”—the Hong Kong model—as a basis for cross-strait relations. In 2017 Mr. Xi claimed Hong Kong enjoys “more extensive democratic rights and freedoms than at any other time in its history.” The argument was strained even then, and civil liberties only regressed in 2018.
Start with the imbroglio over the Hong Kong National Party, outlawed in September after it advocated for Hong Kong independence. The party had only a few dozen members and no officeholders—most Hong Kongers don’t support independence—but the Hong Kong government deemed the fringe group a threat.
That heavy-handed approach backfired. The ban drew criticism from the U.S., U.K. and European Union, and the party’s founder, Andy Chan Ho-Tin, gained global prominence.
Two weeks later Hong Kong targeted a British journalist. Financial Times Asia editor Victor Mallet, who was also vice president of Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club, had moderated an August event where Mr. Chan spoke, over objections from officials in both Hong Kong and Beijing. The Chinese Foreign Ministry warned the club it was “not outside the law,” and former Hong Kong Chief Executive C.Y. Leung hinted that the club might have to give up its lease, which he claimed was government-subsidized. His successor, Carrie Lam, later clarified the club pays a market rate, but it is anyone’s guess what will happen when the lease expires in 2023.
Mr. Mallet has since been forced out of Hong Kong. The Immigration Department didn’t renew his work visa in October and ordered him out within seven days. In November, he was denied entry even as a tourist. The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong warned in October that “any effort to curtail press freedom in Hong Kong could damage Hong Kong’s competitiveness as a leading financial and trading center.”
Another blow to the city’s freedom came with September’s opening of a high-speed train station in Kowloon. One corner of the terminal will be administrated by Chinese officials enforcing the laws of the People’s Republic 15 miles from the Mainland—the first such instance in the history of the “one country, two systems” framework. Never mind that Hong Kong’s miniconstitution, the Basic Law, says domestic Chinese law doesn’t apply to Hong Kong.
Supporters claim this is for the sake of customs convenience and doesn’t present a legal problem because the area is so small. But that logic wouldn’t prevent further suspension of Hong Kong law in other locations. The Hong Kong Bar Association argues that the arrangement “completely bypasses and emasculates” core tenets of the Basic Law and leaves it “irreparably breached.”
Is this the one country, two systems success Mr. Xi hopes will earn Taipei’s trust? Perhaps Beijing believes Taiwan’s November 2018 elections—in which Beijing’s preferred Nationalist Party made significant gains—indicated an opportunity to press its case. But the Hong Kong lesson for the Taiwanese is how much their vibrant democracy would dim under “one country, two systems.”
Mr. Gayou is an assistant editorial page writer at the Journal.
