The challenge of the 1997 Hong Kong handover for Taiwan

The reversion of Hong Kong necessarily compresses both the space and time in which cross-strait relations operate. The buffer zone gradually disappears and the time span for resolving the Taiwan issue shrinks. However, for the short and medium term, we witnessed a growing convergence between Taipei and Beijing over their respective policies toward Taiwan-Hong Kong relations during the crucial juncture of the 1997 handover, despite the big chill in cross-strait relations. As both sides reviewed their respective policy options on Taiwan-Hong Kong relations, they were persuaded by a comparable reading of the huge political and economic stake that they both had in the status quo. At the same time, each worked through a very different kind of strategic calculation but reached a very similar conclusion: Hong Kong is not the place and 1997 not the time to score political points in the cross-strait interaction.