Suggested Alternatives to the One China Policy
Currently, the policy of the United States on the Taiwan question is that the US recognizes that polities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait hold that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China. In the current tense international climate, it may be useful to considers alternatives to that policy.
Two Chinas Policy: The United States recognizes the independence of Taiwan as a sovereign state, separate from the People’s Republic of China.
Three Chinas Policy: The US recognizes Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the mainland as independent states.
Four Chinas Policy: The US recognizes Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and the mainland as independent states.
One China Policy (Retro 1978): The US switches its diplomatic recognition back from the PRC to the ROC.
One China Policy (Retro 1911): The US recognizes the Qing Dynasty as the legitimate government of China and finds some schmuck to play Emperor-in-Exile.
Many Chinas Policy: The US recognizes the sovereign independence of every Chinese province.
Too Many Chinas Policy: Hong Kong makes a perfectly fine city-state, so why not let everyone do that? The US recognizes every Chinese municipality as its own independent state.
1436506450 Chinas Policy: The US recognizes the sovereign independence of every Chinese person.
2^1436506450 Chinas Policy: The US recognizes the sovereign independence of every subset of of the set of all Chinese persons.
2^1436506450-1 Chinas Policy: Same as above, but not including the empty set,
because that doesn’t even make sensebecause it’s already claimed by Germany.Infinite Chinas Policy (Countable): The US recognizes that (1) The PRC is a China and (2) for every China c, the successor S(c) is also a China, and (3) for every China c, c != S(c).
Infinite Chinas Policy (Uncountable): The US recognizes that the set C of all Chinas is an ordered field, and that every non-empty subset of C with an upper bound in C has a least upper bound in C.
No Chinas Policy: The United States embraces mereological nihilism and recognizes only atoms and the void.
4,294,967,296 Chinas Policy: The US recognizes the sovereign independence of every China that can be expressed in a 32 bit integer
2,147,483,647 Chinas Policy: The United States recognizes the sovereign independence of every China that can be expressed in a 32 bit integer… except Will made the integer signed, so please be careful when adding Chinas, lest we start sending out press releases about recognizing negative China.
1.999999999… Chinas Policy: The United States recognizes the independence of Taiwan as a sovereign state, separate from the People’s Republic of China.
