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#a#1. It''s a model for resolving thequestions of Macao and Taiwan#/a#Although there are differenthistorical backgrounds, the model is, generally speaking, yet applicable to Macaoand Taiwan. In the light of Hong Kong model, the Chinese Government and thePortugal Government, on April 13 1987, signed a Joint Declaration to arrangethe peaceful transition of Macao back to the control of China. On March 31, theBasic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region passed the first sessionof the Eighth National People''s Congress. The return will come on December 201999. It is the second success of the principle of One Country, Two Systems insolving the question of domain within China.
The remainingproblem of the reunification of China is the question of Taiwan. In despite ofbeing the focus concern of Chinese Government since 1950''s, it seems that thisquestion will be solved at the last. In fact, the conception of One Country,Two Systems principle came out of the try to persuade the authority of Taiwanto begin negotiations about the unification with the Mainland in early 1980''s. The difficulty is that itis the problem between two parts of Chinese who all claim legitimate for therepresentative qualification of China, though now and then there are hootsabout the independence of Taiwan. We are against with steadiness the claim forTaiwan’s independence and the possibility of its separation from the dominionof China, while we give the Taiwan''s leaders a peaceful choice of reunificationunder the principle of One Country, Two Systems. Out of this choice there wouldbe only the way of armed liberalization. By the peaceful plan, Taiwan mightgain more than what Hong Kong has been given from the Central Government, and vise versa, because its situation isafter all very particular compared with the matters of Hong Kong and Macao. Forexample, the negotiation would be happened between the Mainland and Taiwan in amore equal manner. And the army of Taiwan will be remained mostly untouched asMr. Deng said.
#a#2. The Development of Marxismthrough the Model#/a#Over one hundredyears ago, Carl Marx concluded from the lessons of the failure of the ParisCommune, the first proletarian regime, that the proletarian dictatorship mustsmash the old state machinery to for the consolidation of the new people''spower. Later, Lenin also saidthat the proletarian couldn''t share the state powers with other social classes. While Mao Zhedongexpanded greatly the class ally of the proletarian regime, he and his comradesstill adhered to the people''s nature of the state. In every corner of thecountry, the government must be red.
It is Mr. DengXiaoping, who is entitled as the chief designer of the modern China, that couldrecognize the present needs and the position of the country from a wider,practicing and changing scope. And based on such an observation, he taught thatwhen the country in a whole is a socialist one, it could promise a special partin it to try a different way of life, which doesn''t mean that the country givesup the proletarian principles or changes its nature to a capitalist one.Anyhow, to give citizens of every corner of the land a respected life, thestandards of which will be testified by the given people themselves, is thefinal aim of the rule by the communist party. Therefore, if the Hong Kongpeople want to live by ways of their being used to, then why should they bedisturbed by the need for proving correctness of some pure theory? Inopposition to that, the theory must be proved correct by its being useful to thecommon good of the people and non dangers to the other part of the people ofthe country. What the Chinese Government or the communist party must sustainare the socialist nature of the country as a whole and the unification of theChinese nation. Except these two principles, other things are not fundamentalto the state nature. Starting from such a philosophical presupposition, thepolitical principle of One Country, Two Systems was framed.
The One Country,Two Systems principle has developed practically and theoretically the statedoctrine of Marxism, as a response. It makes the state doctrine established on thereality of the present need, just as Marxism itself appeared and developed forthe need of the workers in the nineteenth century. This kind of Marxism withthe Chinese character is one of the core standards by the Chinese Government todeal the relationships peacefully with other relevant countries.
#a#3. The Development of theConstitutional Theory of China by the Influence of the Model#/a#Because of thetheoretical solution of the state doctrine, the Chinese constitutional theoryacquires a vast space to be developed. And the implementation of the Basic Lawand the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region give theresearch of constitutional theory a great impulse.
The reality ofHong Kong being, within a socialist country, a capitalist community, has madethe state structure of China complicated. Now, if man regards China as aunitary country, he must be cautious, for there exist in a traditionalconsolidated country two legal systems, two political systems, two monetarysystems, and two residential qualification systems in one citizenship, etc. Ifwe count Macao and even Taiwan in, China will be found in various respectshaving multi-choice appearance, much like a federation. But it is also wrong tosay China is a federal country, for there is only one constitution, all powersof its units, including Hong Kong, coming from the vest of the centralgovernment. The question then is how to justify that China is still a unitarycountry.
We should answerthis question by finding out what is or are the critical element or elementsfor deciding the nature of the form of state structure. The Article 12 of theHong Kong Basic Law provides that the Region shall be a local administrativeregion of China, which shall enjoy a high degree of autonomy and come directlyunder the Central Government. From this provision, we could presume that thereare two elements, the nature and source of the powers or authorities of a lowergovernment as well as the relationship between the central government and thelower governments, which will decide the form of state structure belonging to afederation or to a unitary body. The powers of Hong Kong government come from thegranting of the Central Government through the Basic Law, in another word, HongKong hasn''t its own powers, which means that the powers of the Hong Kong peoplecannot be enjoyed ahead of the existence of the central powers. Besides, HongKong people cannot formulate by themselves a constitution and a government. In contrast, in a federalcountry, the powers and authorities of the constituent parts of it are their innateand original ones, and the federal government can neither grant nor deprive thepowers to or of the people of a constituent part. In a part of a federation,the people therein have natural right to write down a constitution themselvesfor forming their own government. On the topic of relationship between thecentral and lower governments, we can see that Hong Kong government is a subordinateunit of the Central Government. It was not and is not an independent part ofChina. The Chief Executive must be appointed by the Center before he or shecould take office. The laws passed at the Legislative Council must be reportedto the Standing Committee for record. And the appointments of the chiefjustices of the Final Appeal Court and the High Court must be reported also tothe Standing Committee for record. But in a federal country, the constituentparts have no such responsibilities to the central government. All these showthat China is still a unitary country, that is, China is "one country".
On the otherhand, however, under the Basic Law, the Hong Kong people enjoy more rights thanthe people in a part of a federal country. For example, the final jurisdictionfor the disputes belongs to Hong Kong, whereas any case could be appealed tothe highest tribunal of the land in a federal country. This is of coursebecause of China promoting the "two systems" in its special parts.
Apart from thedevelopment discussed above, there are abundant progresses in theconstitutional field. We have now two quite different systems and will havemultiple systems exist parallel in one country. In the history of modern China,this situation existed indeed between the central government and the communist controlledparts. But that the two governments survived side by side in the revolutionaryperiod was a political reality, which would change frequently along withaltering of the support of the people and the balance of the strength. Whereasthe two systems in contemporary situation is a legal or constitutional result,which is founded on the conjunct will of the people as a whole.
The Basic Law hasenlarged the field of vision of Chinese scholars. They study now more detailedthings as the constitutional interpretation, the legislative power, the natureand resources of the law, the functions of laws, judicial systems, and so on.As mentioned above, the interpretation of the Standing of the NPC to theclauses of the Basic Law for Hong Kong was the first instance of the formallegislative interpretation in the legal history of China after 1949. This mustlead to perfect the legislative procedures for wielding the interpreting powerby the Standing Committee of the NPC.
The studies tolaws of the special administrative regions have gradually shaped a newdepartment of legal science.
#a#4. The Influence of the Model tothe International Law#/a#At the beginningof this paper, we have noticed that the principle of "One Country, TwoSystems" could be used as a rule to resolve the international disputesthrough peaceful and negotiation way, especially to those historicalremainders. The Principle is in fact a vigorous standard with flexibility. Therelevant countries can apply it to many situations on their concrete needsaccordingly.
We have noticedthat the "One Country, Two Systems" policy has been borrowed by someforeign governments as a choice to handle with the historical questions withother countries. Japanese Premier, Mr. Keizo Obuchi, cited in 1998 the exampleof Hong Kong as a referring model to negotiate about the sovereign problem of NorthernFour Islands with Russia. The principles that China were followed to establishthe Hong Kong Special Administrative Region could be referred to as the basisof the negotiation with Russia. As well as this model has been mentioned by KoreanPresident for resolving the question of two Koreas.
But we should getknowledge about what are the similarities and the differences between theSino-British relations and the Japanese-Russian relations, and so on. That thefact of occupation onto the territory by a foreign power is similar element,which leads to the same demand of territories and attached authority return.Another similarity is that the way to get the question settled will be througha peaceful negotiation. On such recognition, the principle would be fixed on.If the talk between two countries has reached such a degree that the principlefor the further talk has been in agreement, the question would have beenanswered in half. The key phase is the consensus on the principle. After that politicalsettlement, then the legal stage will be followed. The Principle of "OneCountry, Two Systems" is the best choice for a country to solve the domainproblems when it should adhere to the notion of national sovereignty.
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