What we have grouped under the label ‘Greater China’ for convenience actually encompasses at least several geopolitical orders and systems – Taiwan, Mainland China, and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
Until very recently, the People’s Republic of China was the largest country in the world by population and it remains the world’s second-largest economy. It is also perhaps the only potential global challenger to the liberal international order and it features a particularly dynamic, multifaceted, and complex domestic political and social system.
Understanding all of this is critical to explaining any question in contemporary geopolitics. But Greater China has also long featured a variety of distinct polities and political systems. Hong Kong and Macau – both before and after 1997/1999 – have been critical nodes of focused trade and other interaction. The Republic of China (Taiwan) has been a separate political order since the island was colonised by Japan in 1895 and after its return to Chinese sovereignty at the end of World War II.
Taiwan was also among the first and most important ‘developmental states’ and continues to be an engine of global economic growth and technological innovation. It has also been among the most important and successful ‘new democracies’ to emerge since the collapse of the USSR. We look at Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China both separately and in conjunction with one another on our ‘Greater China’ Programme.
