Taiwan rejects China’s ‘one country, two systems’ plan for the island

Taiwan rejected a Chinese proposal of “one country, two systems,” to reunite the disputed island with the Chinese mainland.

“China issued its white paper… in a wishful thinking way, disregarding the reality of the cross-strait situation,” Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said Wednesday, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The comments come as China issued its first white paper, a document that outlines the country’s strategy for national defense, on Taiwan in two decades. The China State Council proposed a system in which Taiwan would reunite with mainland China under the government of the Chinese Communist Party, but would be allowed to keep its capitalist system. The document said that the solution would also call for China to swear off using force to take the island.

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Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou also rejected the idea Wednesday, saying in a news conference that only the people of Taiwan can determine their future and claiming that China was using U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island as an “excuse to create a new normality to intimidate Taiwan’s people,” according to Reuters.

China has been running a series of military drills over the last week in response to Pelosi’s visit, going so far as to send planes and warships over the Taiwan Strait’s median line, which has for decades been an unofficial demarcation boundary between the militaries of Taiwan and China.

Pelosi responded to China’s tactics Thursday, arguing that the U.S. cannot allow China’s new force posture around the island to become the “new normal.”

“What we saw with China is they were trying to establish sort of a new normal,” Pelosi said. “And we just can’t let that happen.”

Military authorities in Taiwan said Thursday the threat from China to the island remains high despite China indicating Wednesday it had “completed various tasks” around Taiwan that could be a signal that it intends to ease military drills.

“At present, the threat of Chinese military force has not decreased,” Tsai said, according to Reuters.