Word.ws English Dictionary

one country, two systems

one country, two systems phrase: the mainland Chinese policy for the reunification of China as one country, with areas like Hong Kong, Macau and (unilaterally and prospectively) Taiwan with separate economic and political systems.

Phrase

one country, two systems

  1. The mainland Chinese policy for the reunification of China as one country, with areas like Hong Kong, Macau and (unilaterally and prospectively) Taiwan with separate economic and political systems.
    • The principle of “one country, two systems” was first proposed by Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s as way to reconcile the communist mainland with historically Chinese territories—Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau—that had capitalist economies.2017 June 29, “Has “one country, two systems” been a success for Hong Kong?”, in The Economist, →ISSN

Origin of one country, two systems

Coined by Chinese politician and paramount leader from 1978 to 1989 Deng Xiaoping in 1982 as part of the Red China proposal to reunify Taiwan. Calque of Chinese 一國兩制 /一国两制 (yī guó liǎng zhì).

Questions about one country, two systems

What does one country, two systems mean?
One country, two systems means the mainland Chinese policy for the reunification of China as one country, with areas like Hong Kong, Macau and (unilaterally and prospectively) Taiwan with separate economic and political systems.
What part of speech is one country, two systems?
One country, two systems is a phrase.

Words near one country, two systems in the dictionary

  1. one cannot break a twig in a bundle
  2. one card short of a full deck
  3. one card shy of a full deck
  4. one could do it in one's sleep
  5. one could hear a pin drop
  6. one country, two systems
  7. one day
  8. One Directioner
  9. One Directioners
  10. one drop
  11. one eighth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: one country, two systems (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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