Chow Chung-yan

Opinion | How Deng Xiaoping’s ‘one country, two systems’ dates back to 1957 in Tibet

With hindsight, the one country, two systems framework bears a certain resemblance to a Qianlong policy Deng and others studied in 1957

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Chow Chung-yan

Published: 9:30am, 4 Sep 2024Updated: 10:20am, 4 Sep 2024

Some 25 years before Deng Xiaoping first proposed “one country, two systems” as a creative political solution to facilitate Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau’s return to China, Mao Zedong tasked him with finding an answer to the Tibet issue.

It was 1957, six years after Beijing and Lhasa signed the Seventeen-Point Agreement that confirmed Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China and its autonomous status.

Tensions started to flare between the two sides shortly afterwards. The central leadership blamed this partly on some Communist officials’ radical move to change Tibet’s social and political systems.

Mao sent Deng, one of his most capable lieutenants, to take charge of the situation and find a long-term solution. Between February and March 1957, Deng held rounds of meetings with other senior officials. Xi Zhongxun, father of the future president, Xi Jinping, was among the attendees.

Deng and his colleagues studied ancient documents for inspiration. The most important one was the Twenty-Nine Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governance of Tibet, an imperial decree issued by the Qianlong emperor of the Qing dynasty in 1793.

For centuries, Tibet was China’s Gordian knot. Its extreme climate, high altitude and unique sociopolitical conditions made administration arduous. Yet, it is critical to China’s stability and security.