HONG KONG -- The Shanghai Communique, signed by U.S. President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972, asserted: "The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position."
It was on this basis that the U.S. and China normalized their relationship in 1979. Both Taiwan and the mainland agreed that there was only one China. The two governments were also similar in that both were essentially dictatorships.
Now, however, much has changed. The mainland has experienced spectacular economic growth, but the Communist Party continues to monopolize power. Taiwan, though, has become a democracy where human rights are safeguarded. What's more, Taiwan has repudiated the idea of "one China," the one element that the two sides had in common for half a century.