China's Once and Future Democracy

choi

Orville Schell, China's Once and Future Democracy; Despite Xi Jinping's crackdown and Donald Trump's silence on human rights, China has a vibrant democratic legacy that may yet reassert itself. Wall Street Journal, Apr 1, 2017.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chi ... emocracy-1490977327
http://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404091663831148448
("On the eve of Mr Xi's first meeting with Mr Trump * * * it is fair to ask whether it is not time, finally, to stop expecting that China will liberalize any time soon")

My comment:
(a) We, particularly you who are from PRC, know about modern history of China. So maybe you just want to read the first five paragraphs.

(b) "As he [Xi] told European dignitaries in Belgium in 2014, 'Constitutional monarchy, imperial restoration, parliamentarianism, a multiparty system and a presidential system—we considered them, tried them, but none worked.' For China to 'copy a political system or development model from other countries,' he said, 'would not fit us, and it might even lead to catastrophic consequences.' "

习近平在布鲁日欧洲学院的演讲（全文）. 新华网, Apr 1, 2014, at Web page 2
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2014-04/01/c_1110054309.htm
("介绍中国是一个很大的课题，我选择中国几个最显著的特点来讲讲。 * * * 第三，中国是实行中国特色社会主义的国家。1911年，孙中山先生领导的辛亥革命，推翻了统治中国几千年的君主专制制度。旧的制度推翻了，中国向何处去？中国人苦苦寻找适合中国国情的道路。君主立宪制、复辟帝制、议会制、多党制、总统制都想过了、试过了，结果都行不通。最后，中国选择了社会主义道路。在建设社会主义实践中，我们有成功也有失误，甚至发生过严重曲折。改革开放以后，在邓小平先生领导下，我们从中国国情和时代要求出发，探索和开拓国家发展道路，形成了中国特色社会主义，提出要建设社会主义市场经济、民主政治、先进文化、和谐社会、生态文明，维护社会公平正义，促进人的全面发展，坚持和平发展，全面建成小康社会，进而实现现代化，逐步实现全体人民共同富裕。独特的文化传统，独特的历史命运，独特的国情，注定了中国必然走适合自己特点的发展道路。我们走出了这样一条道路，并且取得了成功。"  at Web page 2

"世界是多向度发展的，世界历史更不是单线式前进的。中国不能全盘照搬别国的政治制度和发展模式，否则的话不仅会水土不服，而且会带来灾难性后果。2000多年前中国人就认识到了这个道理：'橘生淮南则为橘，生于淮北则为枳，叶徒相似，其实味不同。所以然者何？水土异也。"   at Web page 3

(i) The official version of English speech (presumably Xi delivered it in Chinese and simultaneously interpreted):

Speech By HE Xi Jinping President of the People's Republic of China At the College of Europe, Mission of the People's Republic of China in the European Union, Apr 2, 2014
www.chinamission.be/eng/jd/t1143591.htm
(speech was delivered on Apr 1, 2014)
(ii) HE = His Excellency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excellency

(c)  "Hu Shih, a prominent intellectual of the movement who later became Chinese ambassador in Washington, wryly summed up the spirit of the era: 'The only way to have democracy is to have democracy. Government is an art, and as such, it needs practice.' His generation intended to overturn China's conservative and absolutist traditional culture so that, in the words of another activist, the Chinese people could rid themselves of the '4,000-year-old garbage can on our backs.' "

江勇振, 舍我其誰：胡適 【第一部】; 璞玉成璧 1891-1917. 聯經出版公司, 2011, at page 409
https://books.google.com/books?i ... E%E8%97%9D%E8%A1%93,%E9%9C%80%E8%A6%81%E5%AF%A6%E7%BF%92&source=bl&ots=Qn4uQ02Jsd&sig=wLTt-0-z9vUDDluzyJZ9a5G3ImU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRxI-s_IPTAhWJ0YMKHRVNCT4Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%E6%94%BF%E6%B2%BB%E6%98%AF%E4%B8%80%E7%A8%AE%E8%97%9D%E8%A1%93%2C%E9%9C%80%E8%A6%81%E5%AF%A6%E7%BF%92&f=false
("他 [胡適] 說:「少年中國」相信民主;它相信通往民主的唯一途徑,就是去實行民主。政治是一種藝術,需要實習。這就好像我如果從來就不練習說英文, 我就永遠不會說英文一樣")
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