A Taiwanese official has spoken out against the “one country, two systems” formula as a possibility for Taiwan. The official is James Yu, the director of the press division for the Taipei’s representative office in New York. He made his case in a letter-to-the-editor, published in the New York Times on Wednesday.
Beijing authorities have used the “one country, two systems” formula for ruling Hong Kong, and have long suggested it as a possibility for governing Taiwan. But Taiwan has been ruled separately from China for more than 60 years. Taiwan has a full democracy, which is not the case of either China or Hong Kong.
In the letter, Yu says that the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, “clearly show that the so-called ‘one country, two systems’ formula does not work and that Beijing has failed to keep its promises.”
China has said it would allow the people of Hong Kong to rule themselves for 50 years. However, authorities went back on their promise, by reserving final say on who can be a candidate in the region’s chief executive elections.
Yu’s article went on to say that Taiwan empathized with the people of Hong Kong, but that “Taiwan will not be tomorrow’s Hong Kong.”