United States of China

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United States of China (Traditional Chinese: 中華合衆國; Simplified Chinese: 中华合众国; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhonghua Hezhongguo) is a political concept first devised in the early 1920s by Chen Jiongming of a federalized China modeled closely after the United States of America. Given the political, social and linguistic realities of China in the warlord period, Chen Jiongming believed that a federalist approach was the only feasible way to eventually establish a united, democratic republic. Beginning with Guangdong as a model state, he wanted to organize a "United States of China in the manner of the American experience" through negotiation with federalists from all parts of the country (New York Times June 27, 1922).

The introduction of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) since the 1980s have led to the development of several distinct regional economies within the People's Republic of China, such as the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Circle. Several of these regions have economies the size of small developed nations. Some scholars who use the term United States of China argue that during the process of Chinese economic reform the People's Republic has evolved into a de-facto federal state in which these economic regions have wide descretion to implement policy goals which are set by the PRC central government and in which provinces and localities actively compete with each other in order to advance economically.

Another more recent concept of the United States of China involves creating a framework for settling the political conflict between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan). This usage was popularized after Chinese president Jiang Zemin in 2001 made a comment that a united China could adopt a new national name and flag that satisfy the people of Taiwan. Large economic ties between mainland China and Taiwan have also motivated the occasional informal use of the term to describe a united China.

The "Pan-Green" (pro-independence) movement in Taiwan is distrustful of the concept United States of China since the Pan-Greens generally do not accept Mainland China's sovereignty over Taiwan. What might be more acceptable to the Taiwanese would be a looser European Union-type association between Taiwan (Republic of China) and Mainland China (People's Republic of China). However, the use of the country name "China" or the term "Chinese" may have to be avoided to win the support of the Pan-Greens. "Nanjing Union" might be acceptable (Nanjing being the former capital of the Republic of China). A Union President could have reside in Nanjing which could also house offices handling issues such as harmonisation of certain laws and policies including a common currency. The Nanjing Union would be no more a federation than the European Union can be considered one. It would be more palatable to the Pan-Greens though many of them would still be against such a close association with the People's Republic of China which they deeply distrust. The Nanjing Union or similar proposed association with Mainland China is unlikely to be on the platform of any Pan-Green government in Taipeh, but could one day be realised by a future Pan-Blue government led by the Kuomintang (KMT) putting the issue on a islandwide referendum. The difficulty is that Beijing would have to first recognised the Republic of China as a contracting state able to join such a union and refrain from treating Taiwan as a renege province. Such a looser cross-straits union might one day be peacefully achieved. On the other hand a tighter federal United States of China could possibly only be achieved by military force on the part of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) intervening in Taiwan.