A successful arrangement preserving Hong Kong's separate system could have strengthened the case for peaceful reunification with Taiwan. The argument rests on whether Beijing could demonstrate that such promises would last. Managing two systems within one country creates practical difficulties, but those difficulties do not remove the promise made when the arrangement was accepted. Problems in Hong Kong are therefore treated as a loss of a potential example that might have reassured Taiwan.
Notable Point · 34:23-35:38
Hong Kong as a test of promises about separate systems
The argument about Hong Kong concerns the credibility of promises that a separate system would survive reunification.