The Challenge of the 1997 Hong Kong Handover for Taiwan
Journal
Pacific Affairs
Journal Volume
72
Journal Issue
4
Pages
553-569
Date Issued
1999
Author(s)
Abstract
ver since the early 1990s, most observers on both sides of the Taiwan E Strait had tended to view Hong Kong's reversion to Chinese sovereignty on iJuly 1997 as a crucialjuncture for cross-strait relations. It had been a widely held expectation that this fateful date might be a makeor-break point for the three-link issue.' The escalation of tension in the Taiwan Strait since 1994 substantially intensified the worry of a rupture in Taiwan-Hong Kong relations at the handover.2 The 1997 reversion, however, turned out to be as uneventful and anticlimactic as the death of Deng Xiaoping in February of the same year. The immediate impact of the handover on both cross-strait relations and Taiwan-Hong Kong relations was surprisingly superficial, while the long-term implications of the 1997 reversion for Taiwan, much of which will be contingent on the outcomes of the one country, two systems experiment itself, remain to be seen. In this paper, I analyze how Taipei's policymakers managed to cope with the challenge of the Hong Kong handover for cross-strait relations. I place emphasis on the strategic calculation and political process that induced Beijing and Taipei to pursue a cooperative, rather than confrontational,
SDGs
Type
journal article