Origin of the policy
In a nutshell, it means that the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, both former colonies, may have different economic and political systems than mainland China, while being part of the People’s Republic of China.
The One Country, Two Systems policy was originally proposed by Deng Xiaoping shortly after he took over the country in the late 1970s. Deng’s plan was to unify China and Taiwan under the One Country, Two Systems policy. He promised great autonomy to Taiwan.
China’s Nationalist government, which was defeated in a civil war by the Communists in 1949, had been exiled to Taiwan. Under Deng’s plan, the island could follow its capitalist economic system, have a separate administration and maintain its own army but under Chinese sovereignty. Taiwan, however, rejected the Communist Party’s offer.
Since then, the island has been administered as a separate entity from mainland China, although Beijing has never relinquished its claim to Taiwan.
Return of colonial territories
The idea of two systems in one country resurfaced when Beijing began talks with the UK and Portugal, which run Hong Kong and Macau, respectively.
The British took control of Hong Kong in 1842 after the First Opium War. In 1898, the British government and China’s Qing dynasty signed the Second Beijing Convention, which allowed the British to take control of the islands surrounding Hong Kong, known as the New Territories, on a 99-year lease.
London promised Beijing that the islands would be returned to China after the lease expired in 1997. Macau, on the other hand, had been ruled by the Portuguese since 1557. They began withdrawing troops in the mid-1970s. .