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Table of Contents
Foreword
On the eve of a new century and a new millennia, China
Democracy Party would
like to take this opportunity to review the century
just past and to put into
perspective our mission. This review shall enable us to
better delineate our
position on major issues facing China. In the new
century, we intend to move
forward with a clear direction and with a renewed
resolve.
Ever since written history, world civilizations largely have
fallen into two
categories. One category, that began some five thousand
years ago, is the
agrarian and herding civilization. It is authoritarian
in nature. It uses
either a natural or command economy. It usually has a
single ruling ideology.
In these civilizations, religion and state are usually
inseparable. The other
category of civilization is the one started back in
ancient Greece. It
disappeared for a long period of time and returned some
five hundred years
ago. This civilization is based on trading and
industry. It has a democratic
political system, and a market or free economy. It
allows a multitude of
ideologies to coexist. Its state and religion are
separate.
During the period of agrarian and herding civilization,
China had long led
the world. It had created the most brilliant culture
and the most advanced
institutions of its kind.
The trading and industrial civilization came after the
agrarian and herding
civilization and it was built on the base of the latter.
Since the Renaissance, the
trading and industrial civilization has been expanding
at an alarming rate.
It soon conquered the world and overtook most parts of
the agrarian and
herding areas. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the
beginning of Ching, these
two civilizations came into contact. They came into
full conflict after the
outbreak of the first Opium War of 1839 in China.
China, the old
civilization, lost every war she was forced to enter.
Faced with the West's
mechanized gun boats, China's intellectual class
reacted. Their solution was
to adopt western technology only, and yet to refuse changes
to China's main
political and philosophical principles.
The defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese war of
1894-1895 proved that the
strategy, of adopting Western technology only was a
failure. The
intellectual class then demanded further changes. This
time the list of
changes included China's political institutions from
antiquity. This is known
as the Hundred Day Reform of 1898. Its failure ushered
in a new group who
demanded nothing less than a revolution. The
revolutionaries had their first
success in the 1911 Revolution. In 1912, China became
the first republic in
Asia. This marked the first time China joined the modern
world of trade and
industry.
The new republic soon met with numerous set-backs. It
nevertheless inched
forward with the help of the May-Fourth Movement of 1919
and the Northern
Expedition of 1926. At around 1930, the new republic
had achieved some early
success and prosperity. However, the Japanese invasion
of China in 1937
interrupted China's transformation towards becoming a modern
state.
The rise of communism worldwide was a response to the
ills of early
industrialization. The Chinese Communism, however, was a
different phenomenon.
In truth, it was a contending force to be the next ruler
of China, as well as a
dissenting force in the direction of China's
transformation. The Chinese
Communists called for the rise of peasants to take
land from landlords. They
called for the rise of workers to seize assets from the
capitalists. And they
called for the rise of citizens and the intellectual
class to demand a so-
called "new" democracy (meaning the party had sole
authority to interpret and
to execute the will of the people). They finally seized
power in 1949 from
the hands of the Kuomintang Government who was at the time
struggling towards a
transition to constitutional democracy.
After coming to power in 1949, the communists
established a "joint government"
based on the principle of "new" democracy. It gave
brief hope to China's
modernization. Soon it unleashed its programs of
agricultural
collectivization, and of nationalization of private
industries. Many purges
followed. The best known among them were the
anti-rightist purge of 1957 and
the Cultural Revolution of 1966. This series of
programs and purges were
aimed at giving the party a total monopoly on power and
resources. Any base
for a civil society was, by then, totally removed. Thus
in China, socialism
and totalitarianism united into one. In the end the
Chinese people paid a hefty
price. In return, they were further away from a modern
democracy.
The Chinese people are now waking up. At last, the
devastation of the Cultural
Revolution has taught the Chinese people to push back.
Beginning in 1974, the big
character poster, titled "Democracy and the System of
Law" sounded the first
dissent from the masses. It was followed by the April
Fourth Movement of
1976. These dissents forced Deng Xiaoping to start the
program of reform and
the Open Door policy of the past 20 years. His early
reform programs for
China also helped trigger an avalanche of reforms in
socialist states
elsewhere. After the collapse of the world's socialist
camp in 1989, China
began to dismantle its planned economy, still, ever so
reluctantly. It began
to adopt the market economy and to establish ties with
the industrial world.
Finally these reforms triggered a fast economic growth
in China in the past
10 years.
Overall, China has made progress nationally and
economically over the past
100 years. Yet, in the same period, it has made no
progress in terms of
democratization. In this regard, it actually regressed
in the last 50 years.
Without democracy, China will continue to be an outsider in
the modern world. With
an authoritarian state, and a single ruling ideology,
China will continue to
lag behind overall human development.
During the latter part of the 20th century, the developed
countries of the
world have entered the post-industrial era. A new
civilization, based on
information and knowledge more advanced than those from
the industrial age,
is rising. Whither China?, is the concern of all of us
who care for the future
of China.
A Democratic Political System
In our view, the urgent need to democratize and the key
social changes that
China must go through in the new century, can take one
of two approaches. One
is self-initiated, rational, peaceful and without
bloodshed. In this
approach, the Chinese Communists will speed up political
reform. It will
fundamentally change its policies and political beliefs
and transform itself
into a social democrat, a labor or a liberal party.
It will abandon one-party rule and allow for the existence of opposition
parties. It will move
steadfastly towards free elections, including the
election of the president.
On the ideology front, it will accept freedom of speech
and freedom of press.
It will start, at the earliest possible time, a
discussion with the people about
the need for a new constitution. Over time a power
structure that is
distributive and counter-balanced and a constitutional
democracy will be put in
place. This way China will become part of the modern
world. Taiwan is a prime
example of this approach. It has shown China and the
rest of the world of
what can happen to a Chinese society in the process of
democratization.
The contrary approach is one that is reactionary,
irrational, violent and
bloody. In this approach the Chinese Communists will
resist real political
changes. In its place, piecemeal remedies will be
applied to an unending
series of crisis. Furthermore, they will continue to
uphold the Four Cardinal
Rules which insist on one-party rule. They will
continue to crack down on
oppositions and dissidents and to resist free
elections. They will continue
to control speech and press. As a result major social
issues will not be
resolved in a timely manner, leaving situations to
fester until eruption.
Large-scale street violence and bloodshed will become
unavoidable in this
approach.
History is littered with examples of bloodshed caused
by late reforms.
Unfortunately, we see no signs whatsoever from the
current regime that it is
moving towards a self-initiated, rational, and peaceful
transformation. All
signs indicate the communists are begrudgingly moving
along an irrational
path and crisis is deepening daily.
China Democracy Party's mission is to bring about
China's transformation into
a democracy and a modern society. In China's history,
we have never had a
democracy before. This makes our task doubly difficult.
At the beginning of
this century, Dr. Sun Yat-sen said it is more important
to know what to do
than how to do it. This comment was made during a
time when the world had few
democracies. Today two-thirds of all countries in the
world are democracies.
We now know what to do. It is now more important to
know how to do it. Mature
democracies around the world have by now accumulated a
wealth of knowledge.
We have the guidance not only from British and French
philosophers and the
American forefathers, but also from our own painful
experience under a
totalitarian state in the past 50 years. On the whole
there is not much
dispute on the main direction we are taking. Whether to
choose a presidential
or a premier-based system and the details of
implementation can be debated
and worked out in the years to come.
It is time to take actions. We have talked about
democracy for too long.
Let's "just do it" as a western exhortation would
prescribe.
A Free Market Economy
A democracy depends on its citizens' sense of rights.
Citizens' sense of
rights comes from their willingness to defend their
properties. Only in a
free market economy, can private property fully take
root.
By 1989, after 10 years of reform and the June 4th
massacre, the communists
led by Deng Xiaoping finally accepted that a market
economy will do a better
job than a planned economy. In the 4th plenary session
of the 15th Chinese
Communist Congress, they decided to free up the light
industries. However
they continue to hold onto the giant state (party
controlled) enterprises.
This allows them to maintain the situation wherein their
political power continues
to overlord the economy.
Marxism holds that the conflict between privately owned
production and large
scale state-owned production will inevitably led to the
triumph of socialism
over capitalism. Yet the current popularity of
international companies and
their mergers and acquisitions have shown capitalism is
sound and well. This
shows the said conflict between private and state-owned
production can be
resolved and resolved well. Similarly, the situation
described in length by
Marx, in "Das Kapital", of the deprivation of women
and child laborers in the
early phase of capitalism has long been condemned by
the world. After the
June 4th Massacre and the fall of the Berlin Wall,
Stalin and Mao's state-capitalism has been proven to be a complete failure. In
truth, state ownership is
really party ownership with the working class having no
say whatsoever.
If history would have us view state ownership as the
antithesis to private
ownership, than the logical synthesis would point to
public ownership. Public
ownership can take two forms. One form is a private
enterprise owned by a
multitude of share holders. The other form is a fake:
pretending that state
ownership is equivalent to public ownership. They are
fakes even with their
current, much delayed, measures of rent-seeking and
share ownership. For
without a clear settlement of ownership any form of
rent-seeking, or
contracting out or selling shares will not protect
itself from the meddling
of the state or the party. Chronic low efficiency will
still be with them.
Public ownership via a state will not be able to
survive in a market economy
for long. Instead, the worldwide accepted share
ownership by individuals or
by legal entities will turn out to be the true form of
public ownership.
There is another strong reason to oppose state
ownership. This is because,
hiding behind the state, is a party dictatorship. Its
unfair and unjust
nature not only leads to waste and low efficiency, but
also to a
concentration of power. Clearly, on the concrete slab
of state ownership one
can only build a pyramid of dictatorship. It is never
fertile soil for the
bloom and fruition of a democracy.
On the other hand, only private ownership can lead to
real ownership by the
public. Real ownership by the public liberates the
production power of the
masses. It will stimulate people's creativity and
productivity.
In the last 20 years of this century, we have seen the
Chinese Communists
begrudgingly and stealthily inch towards
privatization. Based on the same
population and the same land mass, the limited
privatization so far has
already enabled the Chinese economy to take off. We
have to ask, with all
these results, why not boldly move forward in the
direction of private
ownership?
For China, we believe privatization of small to mid-size enterprises and
privatization or share ownership of big enterprises are
better forms of
ownership. This also points the direction that the current
reform of China's state
enterprises should take.
We believe only when individuals are allowed to choose
their own paths, when
their rights are protected and when a private ownership
environment exists
that encourages innovation, then China's economy will
develop healthily and
China's democracy will be on a path of no return.
In the few remaining days of this century, China and
the United States
finally signed an agreement allowing China to enter the
WTO. The China Democracy
Party applauds this move. This development represents
an important milestone
in the hundred years-long quest by China to become part
of the mainstream of
the modern world.
Pluralism of Ideologies
Civilization is built on the coupling and mutual
support between its
economic, political and ideological paradigms.
Transformation of a civilization
is therefore a linked and steady movement of all three.
If any one of the
three has a prolonged advancement or retardation the
other two will be
affected and the direction of that civilization will
also change. China, if it
continues to hold onto a single ruling ideology, will
not become a modern
civilization. The cultural and intellectual world of
China will continue to
stagnate. Only a plurality of ideologies will provide
China the broadest
intellectual platform, the widest space and the most
tolerant value
yardsticks. Insisting on a single ideology will only hold
us back and wither our
growth.
It is apparent to all that China's cultural
giants of the recent past
have had their creativity curtailed since 1949. They have become
ordinary and
subservient. Many of them even became debased, petty
and have squandered
their past reputation.
At the end of the Cultural Revolution, people like Guo
Mo-Ruo and Mao Dun
called for China's own literary star of the grandest
class. In addition,
China's Academy of Social Science and state-appointed
philosophers have
called many times for the emergency of grand scholars
and China's own
philosophical school. In China's scientific and
cultural circles there are
people, so then how do we explain the success of overseas
Chinese and their
claims to Nobel prizes?
In addition to the backward research environment of
China, the absolute rule
of state ideology and the water-tight control on
belief and speech have all
contributed to the problem. China is now facing a world
of accelerated
scientific and technological advancement. The Chinese
communist leaders want
to promote science and technology. They do not
understand that science and
technology need the support of a humanistic
environment. Without a relaxation
of control over ideology, the humanistic environment will be
lifeless. Without a
lively humanistic environment, technology innovation
will be limited. The
only eight official operas during the Cultural
Revolution aside, today we
still have the Central Propaganda Department cracking
down on the slightest
deviation in newspapers, magazines and publishing
houses. Cultural and audio
visual material off the official limit will be banned
instantly. How can we
expect a flourishing and creative population under such
a barbaric and
dictatorial cultural policy? Without a wholesale change
to the political and
humanistic environment, any call for innovation or
catching up with the West
is a dream and an uphill battle.
Our Position on Major Issues:
1) on human rights:
It used to be very dangerous to bring up the issue of
human rights to the
Chinese Communists. It is less dangerous now, but still a
very tiresome
endeavor. Human rights is built on the base of
humanism. The material base of
human rights is on the inviolability of private
properties. The Communist Party
came to power by its outright rejection of humanism and
the stripping of all
private properties. The Chinese Communiss always use
class struggle and class
dictatorship to suppress humanism. In 1983, during the
Anti-Spiritual
Contamination Movement, the highest organ in the party
in charge of ideology
unleashed a barrage against diversity, humanism and
humanitarianism. Their
insistence on class conflict effectively shuts out all
recognition of
universal human values.
The Chinese Communists' first mention of human rights
came after the June 4th
massacre of 1989. After 1989, China faced internal and
external condemnations
and economic sanctions. Then China started reluctantly
to talk in human
rights terms. Yet still today, it uses survival and
development as rights in
defense of its lack of political rights for its
citizens. This kind of
rhetoric, in essence, is an admission that China is a
primitive state. For
even the most primitive and most barbaric state will
not oppose the survival
of its subjects. In today's world no advanced state
will shirk away from its
responsibility to protect the political rights of its
citizens.
The fundamental reason of forming a government is for
the welfare of its
people. 200 years ago, the American forefathers had
declared that the right to
life, freedom and the right to pursue happiness are the
reason people form
governments among themselves. People have the right to
change or even remove a
government should it harm the pursuit of these rights.
Chinese people should regain their sense of being the
true master of their
country.
In the past couple of years, the Chinese
government signed the two
international covenants on human rights. We call for
the early ratification
of these two covenants by the People's Congress. The China
Democracy Party fully
intends to play its role as an opposition party. It
will make sure the party
in power carries out its obligations as required by the
two covenants and
that China will shoulder its responsibility as expected
by the international
community.
2) on stability
All Chinese want a stable environment. People are sick
and tired of
government orchestrated political movements and the
communists' perpetual
revolution.
There are two kinds of stability. One is achieved under
an intense political
terror. It is a static and surface kind of stability.
It hides many social
unrests beneath the surface. The unresolved social
issues continue to build
looking for the next incident to erupt. Stability thus
achieved is only
temporary and it will lead to future disturbances.
True stability is dynamic. It achieves progression in
the midst of debate,
friction, conflict and competition. When social crisis
get resolved via
competition, negotiation and compromises, a society has
arrived at a true
stability with vitality.
We oppose the use of stability as an excuse by the
current government to
crack down on opposition and dissidents and to further
delay reforms.
Insisting on a rigid and conservative approach to the
current crisis of
China will only acerbate problems and make situations
more chaotic. Modern
chaos theory as well as history have shown us that old
systems in their final
stages degenerate towards chaos. Out of the chaos, a
new and higher order
will emerge.
3) on the issue of June 4th Massacre
Contrary to popular belief, the June 4th Massacre of
1989 was not an isolated
event started by naive students. From the perspective
of modern Chinese
history, it forms part of the hundred years-old
opposition to dictatorship and
corruption. It demands social justice and democracy.
From the perspective of
the last 50 years, it is a continuation from the April
5th movement, the
Democracy Wall, and the student movements of 1986 and
1987. Although it was
triggered by the funeral of party leader Hu Yaobang,
the crisis had been
building since the 1986 and 1987 crack downs on student
movements. Hu was
forced out and many well known party intellectuals were
expelled as a result
of the 1987 crack down. What followed was rampant
inflation and a financial
crisis. Reform came to a halt. The arch-conservatives
in the party re-asserted
their control. The senile leadership was at a cross-roads and at a loss at
whether to move forward or retreat. The reform and
conservative factions of
the party were inching towards a major confrontation in
early 1989. Under
this situation, students and intellectuals had signed a
number of petitions
asking for human rights, democracy and the release of
political prisoners.
They also demanded a stop to corruption by officials
and high ranking party
members. Students asked the government for dialogues on
these issues and to
restart reform. The party once again wrongfully treated
these requests as a
frontal attack by a class enemy. As a result of this
wrongful assessment,
the party pushed itself, step by step, towards the
final bloodshed on June
4th in Tiananman Square.
The Chinese people as well as the government can
extract many lessons from
the June 4th Massacre. The sacrifice and the heroic
acts of Chinese citizens
and students were far-reaching. It changed not only
Chinese history but also
contributed to the downfall of the communist world
and an early end of the Cold
War by late 1989. We have no doubt that their sacrifice
and heroic acts will
be recognized by history. Their tormentors will also be
remembered by history
as the perpetrators of shame and crime.
We call on the Chinese Communists to formally set up an
impartial
investigation of the massacre. It must prosecute those
bearing the major
responsibilities of the massacre. It must compensate
the victims and their
families. It must come clean in front of the Chinese
people and the rest of
the world.
4) on corruption and social justice
It has been a public outcry that China's
anti-corruption promises are always
ineffective and even outright lies. In 1999, faced with
an economic down
turn, the government decided to spend 54 billion to
raise salaries across
the board by 30%. It was further stipulated that this
amount must be in the
hands of people before Oct 1st, the national day. These
measures are to
stimulate consumption and to keep the economy moving.
This seems like a good
move. But when compared to the more than 100 billion
squandered each year by
government officials on feasting and the 117 billion in
illegal funds from
various departments discovered by the auditor general
for the period between
January and June of 1999 alone, this measure appears
insignificant. Corruption
at all government levels and their abuse of position,
leads to further waste
of public funds in the hundreds of billions each
year. Many
mega-projects cannot be completed. Of those completed
many turn out to be
sub-standard and at the verge of collapsing. This kind
of loss is unaccounted
for and perhaps also in the hundreds of billions each year. If these
holes can be plugged it will generate more than enough
funds to help the
unemployed and the weaker groups of society.
For more than a decade, the Chinese people saved and
contributed to "The
Hope" project for children who cannot afford to go to
school. A total of 1.7
billion was collected over a ten year period. This
amount is but a drop in
the bucket. The prosecution of just a few corruption
cases can recover more
than enough for the improvement of the education
system.
Corruption may not be eradicated instantly under a
democracy. But one thing
is for sure, that under the current undemocratic
situation, corruption can
only grow further.
5) on peasant issues
The problems peasants face are the most acute problems
of China today. From a
demographic point of view, China is still an agrarian
society. Although
China's economy and its ideology is heading towards
industrialization, its
political structure and bureaucracy, particularly those
at the local level,
are still based on an agrarian model, or even Middle-Ages like.
In the 1990's China still had 70% of its population as
peasants. They are at
the bottom of China's social classes. They are the
weakest, the least
empowered, and the most taken advantage of group in
China. Before the
relaxation of the household registration system of the
past 20 years, the
peasant population were firmly held down to the land.
Their movement outside
their village had to be approved. At one time their
biggest dream was merely to
visit a city. During the 20 years of reform some of
them were allowed into
cities to work as labors, taking up the dirty and
dangerous jobs city folks
refuse to do. They are the poorest group and without
their own political
representation.
Most of the 200 million illiterates of
China are peasants
living in rural areas.
They are a simple, kind hearted and docile people. As a
result they are the
easiest to rule. They were the group who bore the
lion's share of the cost of
China's industrialization. They scarified the most and
yet when tens of
millions of them died of hunger in 1964, they still
didn't rebel. For many
years they remained the last group loyal to the
communists. However, in recent
years they have come to the end of their patience. The
continued fleecing of
their rightful income via a myriad of excuses and the
breakdown of the justice
system have forced many of them to take up open revolt.
These peasant revolts
appear to be widespread and their scale is
increasing.
The most urgent task at hand is to change the de-facto
second class citizen
status for the peasants. Only after the peasant
population becomes unshackled
can changes be brought forth to China's antiquated
agri-business. New
agri-investment, effective land resource management,
and the correct
positioning of China's agri-business under the WTO will
then be fully supported
by the liberated peasant population.
Without the modernization of the peasant class, China
will not succeed in its
transformation to a modern world. All modern states
today have gone through
the process of urbanization, the spread of civil
society and a universal
education system. With its huge population, China's
rural economy is a great
potential market. The unshackling of the peasant
population will prove to be
the greatest release of the hidden potential of China.
6) on free trade unions
In the midst of China becoming a market economy and
trading with the rest of
the world, the relationship between labor and
government is also changing.
While the government is getting out of state
enterprises, pushing them to
become companies with share ownership, labor's main
negotiations will no
longer be with the government. Instead it will be with
the management of
enterprises.
Government should play the role of setting rules and
regulations. In addition
it should play the role of a referee between labor and
management. This will
help resolve labor unrest and enhance stability. The
current problem is while
enterprises are fully recognized and protected by law,
laborers are not. Laborers
still do not have their own identity or representation
before law. Therefore
legislation of a trade union bill is urgently needed.
This bill will allow
the formation of free trade unions. Trade unions thus
formed will represent
laborers in their negotiations with management as well as
government. This bill
would also create the mechanism whereby labor unrest
will be resolved in a
peaceful and lawful manner.
China has signed the two UN Human Rights covenants.
Section 8 of the Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights specified the
rights to organize, the
rights to form national and international trade union
associations, and that
these rights shall be guaranteed by law.
At the moment, tens of million workers are let go in
the name of
privatization of state enterprises. Many of the
unemployed workers are on the
street demonstrating. Therefore, the rights of citizens
to organize and the
rights of workers to form their own unions should be
our first priority.
Currently, non-government organizations must be
approved by the government.
The ruling party and the government use this mechanism
to forbid the forming
of any organization they dislike. This in essence
negates a citizen's right to
organize and therefore is against the Chinese
Constitution.
The China Democracy Party has pushed hard for the right to
form free trade
unions. For this, many of our members are currently in
jail.
7) on rule of law
A modern economy needs an environment whereby
constitution rules supreme and
with a system that is based on the rule of law. The Chinese
Communist Party is now
claiming they are heading towards rule of law. Yet it
still insists on one-party rule. The party is still above the law and
overlords everything. It is
clearly an empty gesture to say they want rule of law.
Today we have laws in China. But these laws are not
derived via any
consultation with the people. As a result the law of
how we are governed is
unjust and unacceptable. We need a new constitution
that is fair and
acceptable to all. Moreover the new constitution must
be above all political
parties. This includes the party in power.
The heart of the problem is that the Communists see the
world through the lens
of Marxism. Marxism claims the purpose of a state is to
be the tool of
oppression of the ruling class. It follows the law of
the land and its
constitution represents only the will and security of
the ruling class. The
communists being the current ruling class, any
adjustment to the law and
constitution will be arranged to further its rule and
its vested interests.
The law and constitution thus designed does not protect
the rights of the
ruled and disallows any dissent. A case in point: the
new law on
demonstration promulgated after the June 4th massacre
became a laughing stock
internationally. Outside of China it is known as the
law of no demonstration.
The diverse need of the Chinese people can not be
satisfied by a law and
constitution designed for the sole benefit of a single
group, i.e. the
Communists. Thus the current constitution and rule of
law have lost their
meaning to the Chinese people, including many low-ranking party members.
20 years ago, at the end of the Cultural Revolution, a
debate was started on
whether the party should be above the law. This debate
is still on-going.
The Communist Party still refuses to give a clear
answer on this question.
Today they are swallowing the poison fruit of their own
sowing. Some low-level officials at the county level openly declared
that the party secretary
of the county government is also above the
constitution. If the party
secretary of all levels of government start to claim
supremacy over the
constitution, a just and fair society will not be
possible. Fair competition,
fair taxation, fair distribution of wealth, fair
sharing between labor and
management, between peasants and city folks and fair
competition between
parties all become unattainable.
Rule of law must be built on the base of a fair and
democratic structure.
Therefore the current body of law and constitution must
change.
After the Second World War, the ruling Kuomingtang
party invited the
Communist Party and all the other parties of the time,
into an exercise of
constitution drafting. By Jan 1946, all parties
involved came through with a
constitution draft know as the Double Ten Draft.
Unfortunately, the civil war
soon broke out. The Double Ten Draft never had the
chance to function as an
unifying force. 50 years later, looking back, the 1946
draft still shines
like a star beckoning to us the value of diversity and
democracy. Surely, the
1946 draft should be used as the base for a new
constitution draft. The 1946
draft may even help us in resolving the unification and
the Taiwan issue.
8) on education
Education is invaluable to the economy and
modernization. China has a
thousands of years-old tradition of valuing education.
The severe damages
done to the education system of China during 1960s and
1970s by the Communists
will be with us for a long time to come. In the last 20
years, China's higher
education went through two major expansions. The first
was basically a
recovery from the Cultural Revolution. At that
expansion China merely resumed
university entrance examinations. The second and recent
expansion of higher
education is in part an effort to stimulate the
economy, and to encourage
education consumption. In this recent move, private
contributions are
welcome. We support these expansions.
The current education system and its deficiencies are
widely known. There are
two major bottle necks which are still taboos for
public debate. One is
independent private schools, particularly universities.
China needs good
private universities, especially the comprehensive type
with humanities,
social science, science, and technology all included.
The second bottle neck
is on the reform of curriculum. The monopoly of a
single ideology in social
science and humanities must go. In its place,
diversity, modernity and
liberalism shall be the norm to align with the advance
education systems of
the world.
Education should never again be the tool of propaganda
for party ideology,
nor the training ground for future generations of party
functionaries.
Education is the business of all Chinese. Our future
depends on it. It shall
never be a set up for the benefit of a single class,
party or group.
Currently, reform of the education system lags behind
reforms of all other
areas. This is because control over the education
system is deemed vital to
the survival of the current authoritarian rule. We
expect a long road ahead
of us.
9) on ecology
The concept of ecology, environment and sustainable
development are now
widely accepted. Even the political conservatives
acknowledge these concepts.
However, accepting the concepts does not necessary result in
actions. Here we want
to show the relationship between ecology and democracy.
First, we understand ecology is not only a Chinese
issue, but also a global
issue. Its protection requires international
coordination. Such coordination
between nations are usually guided by international
institutions and
treaties. In addition, results will also be heavily
influenced by the
existence (or not) of effective non-government watchdogs
in each country. This
is also exactly where the problem lies as far as China
is concerned. The level
of damage to China's ecology is already at the brink of
disaster. Continued at
the current rate, China may become an uninhabitable ghost-land for many
generations to come. China' ecological problem cannot
be resolved without
China being democratic at the same time. Without the
strong media watchdogs
of a democracy, profit motives and vested power are
unchecked. Damages done
to the ecology will continue to rise.
When the effective counter weight of a democracy is absent,
major ecological
disaster are prone to happen. This is because those in
power and their lackeys, who often dream
of glorious and monumental projects, will be completely
unopposed. Under an un-democratic environment,
independent scholars and
environmentalists will be silenced. Even the mild China
Sustainable
Development Association was banned last year.
Therefore our position is we support the concern on
ecology. But democracy
needs to take place first for ecology protection to be
meaningful.
We also believe, if China's transformation is as smooth
as Taiwan's, China
may be able to reduce the level of damage to its
ecology. On the other hand,
if China's transformation should take a irrational and
violent route, then we
are afraid a major ecological disaster will be
unavoidable. This is
absolutely what we want to avoid.
10) on military
The military is supported by tax dollars and its
purpose is to defend a
country from external threats. Hence it belongs to the
people and should obey
only the will of the people. The military should never
be the private
property of one party.
Our position is the military must belongs to the state,
not the party. It
should be neutral in politics. We oppose any meddling
in politics by the
military.
We observe that in many countries, when transiting
towards democracy, the
military usually takes the side of dictators and
becomes a stumbling block
towards democracy. This is because, in addition to their
self interest, their main
role in these countries is to suppress internal
revolts instead of
protecting the country from without. In a democracy,
the military will not
have the role of internal security. That role belongs
to the security police.
Therefore, the need for the military to meddle in
internal politics is absent
in a democracy.
Today's democracies rarely go to war between
themselves. Most conflicts
between democracies can be resolved by political,
economic, or diplomatic
means. This is in contrast to the many wars between
dictatorships throughout
history. Wars do happen between democracies and
dictatorships. The 20th
century has seen two World Wars and many localized
wars of this nature.
They all end with the democracies coming out victorious.
Should the entire world become democracies, chances of
war will be further
reduced. An age of peace will be with us. Clearly the
mega-trend of the
world today is towards democracy and arms reduction.
Correspondingly, the
military trend is towards downsizing and high tech. The
huge savings from a
small military, if used on education, science, and
technology will bring
great benefit to a country and its people.
When countries have no territorial ambitions, the
military becomes truly a
defense force. In such countries, its strength does not
come from its
military but from its advanced social institutions. The
strength of its
economy and technology are its true deterrent. The
military then becomes a
force of last resort.
Only those countries, with the ruling class treating
power as their private
properties, will continue to cling onto the military.
11) on minorities
The Chinese people are an amalgamation of many races.
During its thousands of
years history, there were times the Han Chinese ruled
over the minorities. As
well, there were times the minorities invaded and ruled
over the Hans. Over
thousands of years, amalgamation took place of both
race and culture and we
have accumulated a wealth of knowledge in dealing with
issues between races.
Based on all the UN human rights covenants, we strongly
advocate the equality
between all races and the equality and freedom of
religion of all races
within China. We believe a varying degree of self-rule
is a way to harmonize
race relationships and is the base for a united and
prosperous China for all.
The dictatorship of the Communists is indiscriminate.
The Han Chinese, being
the majority, bears the brunt of its cruelty. Without
overcoming the tyranny
in its bulk, the rights of minorities will have even less of a
chance. The urgent
task at hand is to unite all races in the fight for
democracy. Only when
democracy is established, can the rights of minorities be
protected and race
relationships become harmonious.
Self-determination was successfully used during the
time the colonized
people fought for their independence. We need to point
out that the self-determination mentioned in all the UN documents are
related to conquered
people by another country. When colonization is not
involved, UN deems it
incompatible with its charter for there to be any attempt to split
a member country.
China is a huge land mass where different races have come
together in the long
years of history. It is not the result of
colonization. We therefore oppose
the misuse of self-determination in the context of
China. It can only lead to
discontent and even disaster.
12) on one country with two systems and the issue of
Taiwan
We are confident a solution will be found on the issue
of Taiwan. Clearly,
the Taiwan issue hinges on China's democratization.
Without democracy in
China, Taiwan is unwilling to return. This is to be
expected. For most, it is
better to be poor under a democracy than to be rich
under a dictatorship.
People in Taiwan have both wealth and democracy.
Naturally, they are doubly
unwilling to be ruled by communism. Many in China today
will go into debt, or
take to the seas, or even risk their lives to emigrate.
These are Chinese who
grew up under communism. One can hardly accuse them of being
unpatriotic. In
effect they are saying: we are willing to be patriotic,
but first the country
must deserve our devotion. It is human nature to love
freedom. A place
without freedom and human rights dispels rather than
attracts.
Unification between China and Taiwan, from an economic
point of view, should
not have major impediments. This is because both sides
believe in a market
economy and will become one market area overtime. From
the stand point of
race, culture and religion, there are no major
impediments to unification
either. The only impediment comes from the different
ways of life across the
Taiwan Strait. China is a dictatorship while Taiwan is a
democracy. Once China
becomes democratic this last impediment will also go.
The Chinese Communist leadership used to insist on a
forced "liberation" of
Taiwan in the first 30 years of their rule. After
reform they came to realize
that people in Hong Kong and Taiwan live a better life
than theirs. It
became obvious that it is futile to force socialism
onto them. They then
retreated to the current position of one country with
two systems. It begs
the question: If the two systems continue, how is it
different than two separate
countries? The natural thing to do is to have one country with
one system. It
behooves us to compare and select the best system for
our one country.
The Communist Party must come to grips with this
reality. Accordingly, it
should let all know that there is a plan and a time
table to move away from
one country with two systems. The one country is
neither the People's
Republic of China nor the Republic of China. It is a
confederation inclusive
of both and other special regions. Only boldly
facing this reality will
help us resolve the issues between all sides.
Eventually, one country with
the best system will bring forth the harmony and
prosperity we aim for.
The China Democracy Party solemnly declares that under the
current situation in
China, that is when people have no say under an
undemocratic regime, no
mandate can be established whatsoever to take military
action against Taiwan.
Therefore we oppose any military move on Taiwan.
13) on foreign policies
After the Second World War, international diplomacy,
under the guidance of UN
and the UN Declaration on Human Rights, focused on
world trade and world peace.
A democratic China will be suitable as a strategic
partner with the US and Europe for world peace.
In the past decade China has found itself in an awkward
position with its foreign
relationships. Its root problem is not due to a
ganging up on China by the
West, nor is it due to a concerted effort to villify
China, as the China Communists believe.
China's problem internationally is due to its image as
a serious offender of
human rights internally. Moreover, it consistantly sides
with international rouge
states who have committed crimes against humanity.
China becomes their
spokesman and their ringleader. This further tarnishes
China's image.
A democratic China will extricate itself from its
current isolation caused by
the wrongful policy of the current regime. It will
cease its confrontational
stance towards the West. China will become part of the
mainstream. As a
result, China's international standing should greatly
improve.
China shall not enter into an anti-US alliance with
Russia. This is a long
and lonely road leading to a lengthening of the Cold War
and a dead-end of joint poverty with Russia.
China will not seek hegemony. China will accept the
status quo of one super
power in the midst of many powers. It will work to
reduce confrontation and
mistrust with the US, Europe and Russia. Real
partnerships will be formed with them for world peace.
China will support the expansion of NATO. We welcome the
union of all European
countries. We advocate concrete assistance from the
West to help Eastern Europeans' economic recovery.
China will actively participate in UN human rights
activities
internationally. China will accept the position that
human rights come before
sovereignty. Based on this principle, China will join
forces with other leaders
of the world to build a new world order in the new century.
In the Asia region, China will, on the one hand
continue its watch of
Japan's sincerity in its reflection on war crimes, and
any hint of a revival
of Japanese militarism. On the other hand China will
support the two Koreas
uniting under a democracy. China, Japan, and a united
Korea will cooperate in maintaining peace in Asia.
China will work to earn the respect of the world. Its
strength and its moral
stance shall be commensurate with its stature as a
world leader.
The China Democracy Party opposes the current propaganda of
the Chinese Communists. It is designed to deflect legitimate
criticism of China's human
rights record. Moreover it is fanning an anti-West
sentiment among the young.
It misleads the younger generation to equate patriotism
to anti-West
sentiments. In so doing they have bound the future of
the young to that of the Communists.
14) on transition to democracy
We have a clear understanding that democracy is not
ideal. An ideal system does
not exist in real life but in an utopia. In a democracy
there may be many
short-comings. But, when compared to the evils of a
totalitarian system, these
short-comings are insignificant. Democracy thus becomes
the best political system human society has known so far.
Authoritarian states have been around for a long time.
They sometimes even
overcome some democracies. However, authoritarian
states have three fatal
flaws. One is its succession problem. Its succession
usually takes the form
of passing power to successively weaker or even
incapable rulers. Or it can
take the form of a violent putsch. Secondly, an
authoritarian system does
not have an effective feedback mechanism within its
decision making process.
Disastrous or even self-destructive decisions won't be
checked until too
late. Thirdly, the absolute power of an authoritarian
state leads inevitably
to corruption. Privileges and corruption are unstoppable
in such systems. In
the long run authoritarian systems can not compete with
the more healthy democratic systems.
We also do not expect the transition from an
authoritarian system to a
democracy to be a simple switch-over. China, with a long
tradition of
authoritarian rule, may have to go through a few
reversals in its migration
towards democracy. The history of many democratic countries
tells us democracy
will overcome eventually. Matured democracies are now
established in many countries.
China's migration towards democracy began at the
Hundred Day Reform of 1898.
By now we have gone through the see-saws between reform
and dictatorship a
number of times. We believe these types of wild swings
will subside over time,
eventually settling down to a stable state of
democracy. The see-saw process
is both painful and destructive. The high price
involved often frightens people away from reform.
Yet the pain we are currently suffering can be likened
to the pain of birth.
This is the price the Chinese people must pay to end
thousands of years of
despotic tradition and to usher in a new age of
democracy and vitality.
In the 1920's, Dr. Sun Yat-sen proposed a three-step
process towards
democracy. The first step would be a military rule for
the eradication of war
lords of the time. This would be followed by a training
period when a number
of democratic practices will be under trial. The third
period would see China
becoming a full constitutional democracy. At the time,
the Chinese Communists
opposed this plan under the pretense that they wanted
full democracy
immediately. Today, some 80 years later, this plan
still looks very
attractive. If the Chinese Communists are truly concerned
about the shock effect of a
transition to democracy, and not an excuse for holding
onto power, then we
would like to see a time table from them. The time
table should tell us when
they will migrate from their version of a "training
period" to a full
constitutional democracy. Ten years, twenty years, thirty
years, forty years? We demand a time table.
In the whole of the 20th century, the Chinese people have
been searching for a
path to revival. We have sacrificed for the cause and
bore the pain and the
suffering in the process. At the end of the century we
have gained the clear
understanding of where we are heading with a
renewed determination.
In the new century we will go all out until final victory.
Closing Remarks
Last but not least, we strongly demand the release of
our leaders Mr. Xu
Wenli, Mr. Wang Youcai , and Mr. Qin Yongmin. We also
call for the release
of our leaders who were sentenced to long prison terms
in the second wave of
crackdowns this past year. They are Mr. Cha Jianguo,
Mr. Gao Hongming, Mr.
Liu Sijun, Mr. Wu Yilong, Mr. Mao Qinxiang, and Mr. Zhu
Yufu. The release of
other dissidents is also an important concern of ours.
They are Mr. Hu
Sigeng, Dr. Wang Ce., poet Yu Xinjiao, Mr. Peng Min,
and Mr. Jiang Qisen. We
call for the immediate stop to further persecution of
our party, and of all
dissidents. We also call for the immediate stop to
persecution of Fa Lun Gong
and other religious groups and their activities.
We do not advocate violence. On the other hand, we do
not back down from
violence thrown at us. Our endeavor is what history
demands of us and
therefore is an inevitability. We are but the
continuation of thousands who
have gone before us. To think that arrests and white
terror can stop us is to
misjudge our time and where the world is heading. Mr.
Cha Jianguo in his
recent trial in Beijing, said: "China Democracy Party
members are not afraid
of death. What then is the significance of a jail term
to us?"
This exemplifies our righteousness and our confidence
that truth is on our side.
We do not shut out a Communist out of hand. We even
hope that China's
thousands of years of authoritarian rule together with
its draconian measures
will end with the help of the Chinese Communists. We
therefore call on Chinese
all over the world, our friends internationally, and
even the reform factions
of the Communist Party to join forces with us to bring
about a democratic China.
In the new century, we hope to see more happy times for
the whole nation and
less confrontations in the streets. Our enterprise may
have its ups and downs
but we can never be stopped. This is because we align
ourselves to the common
goal of the Chinese people and to the future direction
of the human race. We
believe those who align themselves with the future can
never be defeated.
Compatriots, China Democracy Party will join hands with
you. Together we
shall boldly embrace the new century of democracy!
China Democracy Party
Beijing Head Quarters
2000 01 01
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