Two countries, two systems
Joyce C. Shieh

What is China? If you ask people this question, you probably will get as many different answers as you might think of. Indeed, answering this easy question is not as easy as it looks.
The truth, however, is that there is but one China in the world. And there is Taiwan.
To most people, when the name of China is used, it refers to the People's Republic of China on the mainland. It is an undeniable fact.
Sun Weide, press spokesman for the Embassy of China in his letter Friday, "There is only one China," stated that "being different from [the United States] does not make us 'authoritarian.' " That is true. What makes the People's Republic of China authoritarian lies in the political system it has. China exists as a one-party country. It does not allow any opposition party to flourish on the mainland. Taiwan, on the other hand, has become a vibrant democratic country in the past 10 years.
Since its founding in 1949, the People's Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan, even for one day. In other words, China and Taiwan have been separate countries on each side of the Taiwan Straits for more than 50 years. This is a very harsh fact for China to swallow.
To most of the Taiwanese people living on the island today, Taiwan has been an independent country for as long as they know. Taiwanese people have fought hard and long for the democratization of Taiwan. To tell them that the future of Taiwan lies on the "one country, two systems" model advocated by China definitely would be neither appealing nor acceptable.

JOYCE C. SHIEH
Executive director
Formosan Association for Public Affairs
Washington

This article is published with the permission of the author. It was first published in the Washington Times on February 17, 2004