Editing Chinese unification (section)

=== One China, Two Systems proposal ===
[[File:Anti-Taiwan independence movement protesters in Washington DC 20051020.jpg|thumb|Anti-Taiwan independence protesters in Washington, D.C. during [[Lee Teng-hui]]'s visit.]]
{{Main|One country, two systems}}
[[Deng Xiaoping]] developed the principle of one country, two systems in relation to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last=Hu |first=Richard |title=Reinventing the Chinese City |date=2023 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-21101-7 |location=New York}}</ref>{{Rp|page=176}} According to the 1995 proposal outlined by [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP General Secretary]] and [[paramount leader]] [[Jiang Zemin]], Taiwan would lose sovereignty and the right to self-determination, but would keep its armed forces and send a representative to be the "number two leader" in the PRC central government. Thus, under this proposal, the Republic of China would become fully defunct.{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

In May 1998, the [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]] convened a Work Conference on Taiwan Affairs which stated that the whole party and the whole nation should work together for peaceful unification.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Zhao |first=Suisheng |author-link=Suisheng Zhao |title=The Taiwan Question in Xi Jinping's Era: Beijing's Evolving Taiwan Policy and Taiwan's Internal and External Dynamics |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2024 |isbn=9781032861661 |editor-last=Zhao |editor-first=Suisheng |editor-link=Suisheng Zhao |location=London and New York |pages= |chapter=Is Beijing's Long Game on Taiwan about to End? Peaceful Unification, Brinksmanship, and Military Takeover |doi=10.4324/9781003521709}}</ref>{{Rp|page=11}}

Few Taiwanese are in support of the One Country, Two Systems policy while some unification supporters argued to uphold the ''status quo'' until mainland China democratized and industrialized to the same level as Taiwan. In the 2000 presidential election, independent candidate [[James Soong]] proposed a [[European Union]]-style relation with mainland China (this was echoed by [[Hsu Hsin-liang]] in 2004) along with a non-aggression pact. In the [[2004 Taiwanese presidential election|2004 presidential election]], [[Lien Chan]] proposed a [[confederation]]-style relationship. Beijing objected to the plan, claiming that Taiwan was already part of China, and was not a state and, as such, could not form a confederation with it. Developments in Hong Kong have caused the population of Taiwan in recent years to find "One China, Two Systems" to be "unpersuasive, unappealing, and even untrustworthy."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Chong |first=Ja Ian |date=February 20, 2023 |title=The Many "One Chinas": Multiple Approaches to Taiwan and China |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2023/02/the-many-one-chinas-multiple-approaches-to-taiwan-and-china?lang=en |access-date=31 March 2024 |archive-date=3 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230503074117/https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/02/09/many-one-chinas-multiple-approaches-to-taiwan-and-china-pub-89003 |url-status=live }}</ref>