'One China' Contention in China-Taiwan Relations: Law, Politics and Identity
The China Quarterly, Volume 252
20 Pages Posted: 16 Aug 2022 Last revised: 28 Mar 2023
Date Written: September 27, 2022
Abstract
This article examines the abiding “one China” contention between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan), focusing on their 2008–2016 cooperation and the ensuing political stalemate. It does so by investigating the PRC’s and the ROC’s respective legal frameworks and the positions of the major political actors, including the Chinese Communist Party and both Taiwan’s Kuomintang and its Democratic Progressive Party. While the PRC maintains its “one-China principle,” and the ROC’s legal system retains some “one China” elements, the idea of “one China” has been in flux in Taiwan. The traditional concep-tualization of “one China” has been increasingly challenged in Taiwan’s democratic era by the rise of a countervailing Taiwanese national identity and opposition to the PRC’s insistent agenda to absorb the island. These dynamics are rapidly minimizing the appeal and political utility of any “one China” notions in China–Taiwan relations.
Keywords: one China, one country, two systems, one China, respective interpretations, 1992 Consensus, dissensus, Taiwanese national identity
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