Told you so

“ONE country, two systems”, the formula supposed to guarantee Hong Kong’s autonomy under Chinese sovereignty, was first devised for Taiwan. But it has never held much appeal there, and China’s refusal to cede to the demands of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong comes as no surprise. But the confrontation makes it harder to enthuse Taiwan about unification with the mainland.

Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, elected in 2008, has conjoined Taiwan’s economy ever closer with China’s. The hope in China is that this will pave the way for political unification. But even Mr Ma insists the fiercely democratic island has a right to its own sovereignty. Born in Hong Kong, he has backed the democracy movement there. Speaking on Taiwan’s National Day on October 10th, as honour guards twirled rifles and dancing girls imitated butterflies, he argued that Chinese leaders should make Hong Kong a democratic region separate from the mainland, experimenting with political reform as China did with capitalism when it set up special economic zones in the 1980s.