Chinese President Xi Jinping may be good at purging the Communist Party of his rivals or the country of corruption, but he seems a very bad salesman when trying to sell Taiwan his grand vision for a unified China.

After seeing how Beijing is turning a deaf ear to the Hong Kong people’s vehement calls for true democratic reform, some skepticism could be forgiven toward Xi’s talk of cross-strait unification through the peculiar doctrine of one-country, two-systems.

The pro-democracy Occupy Central and students’ movements in the former British colony are actually as much about Taiwan’s future as about Hong Kong’s present predicament.

China invented the one-country, two-systems doctrine as a way to retake Hong Kong as well as Macau from their colonisers. It was meant to placate citizens who had been living in a world very different from their communist “compatriots” on the mainland and who had been reluctant to return to the “motherland.”

They were not offered any other option ― neither by their departing colonisers nor by the incoming rulers. They had to accept the formula hoping that Beijing would keep its promises.

The formula is founded on the promise that their way of life and most of their institutions would remain unchanged for 50 years, plus popular elections for their own government leader at some time in the future.

Barely two decades have passed, but changes in the former colonies ― particularly in Hong Kong ― have been obvious. Self-censorship among the press has been worsening; conflicts between Hong Kong people and their mainland compatriots have been intensifying.

Hong Kong people have also been severely disappointed by the latest announcement concerning the election of their next government leader: under the new plan, only Beijing-approved candidates would be allowed to run in the election.

Hong Kong and Macau are supposed to be showcases of the one-country, two-systems doctrine, which has Taiwan as its ultimate target.

Trying to dismiss growing skepticism over the doctrine, Xi on Friday met with representatives of several Taiwanese pro-unification groups he had invited.

During the meeting, he reiterated China’s goal of peaceful unification with Taiwan and his government’s one-country, two-systems formula as the basis for cross-strait unification.

He told his guests, including New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming, that he understands that the people on both sides of the strait have been living very different lives, and that he respects the Taiwanese people’s wishes and opinions.

But he also asked the Taiwanese people to understand and respect how mainland Chinese think and feel about unification, condemning and warning those who promote the island’s independence.

Xi’s talk about mutual respect and understanding seems fair. But is it?

His talk is founded on the principle that both sides of the strait must unite. Xi made it clear that China will never give up this principle.

Such a principle forecloses the other major option, which is independence for Taiwan.

It really means that the Taiwanese people’s wishes can be respected and fulfilled as along as they conform to China’s pre-set framework: whatever Beijing agrees to will be given to Taiwan, and whatever Beijing doesn’t agree to will be denied.

It is conditional mutual respect and understanding where Taiwan must heed the 1.3 billion compatriots’ wish for unification.

For China, it is always a one-sided game: 1.3 billion people in China versus 23 million in Taiwan. The majority wins, of course.

Xi is a bad salesman trying to hard sell Taiwan a product that has already proven stale somewhere else. He hasn’t even tried to sugar-coat the offering for Taiwan.

He has not said whether Taiwan might continue to popularly elect its own government leader in a truly democratic fashion after unification.

Beijing is afraid that a pro-democracy leader would become the next leader of the Hong Kong government and go on to create more trouble for China.

Beijing definitely has the same fears concerning the Taiwan situation. Will Beijing tolerate a pro-independence leader managing Taiwan after unification?

(Editorial, The China Post)