China should promote a Chinese cultural renaissance and handle cross-strait issues with benevolence if it wants to be a great world power, according to former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄).
Liu said British historian Arnold J. Toynbee predicted that the only human civilizations that could save the world in the 21st century were the Chinese civilization of Confucianism and the Buddhist civilization of Mahayana Buddhism.
However, Liu said Toynbee’s prediction could not come true unless today’s China made a great contribution to global cultural development.
“While China has emerged as an economic powerhouse and is the world’s largest manufacturing center and consumer market, it will not be able to command the same stature or influence as Britain in the 19th century and America in the 20th century if it fails to contribute greatly to human civilization and culture,” Liu said in his capacity as president of the National Cultural Association at a function held on Friday at the Presidential Office.
Liu suggested that China follow the principles of “benevolent rule” preached by Chinese philosopher Mencius (孟子) (372-289 BC), arguably the most famous Confucianist after Confucius (孔子) himself.
Moreover, China should initiate a Chinese cultural renaissance and draw on the essence of traditional Chinese culture while learning from the fusion of ancient and modern cultures and Eastern and Western civilizations, Liu said.
On President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) appeal in his 2010 New Year’s Day speech that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should seek a pragmatic and feasible solution to their disputes on the basis of traditional Chinese culture, Liu said the first step toward that goal is to address cross-strait issues with a benevolent way of thinking.
Liu cited a media report published during negotiations between Taiwan and China on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) earlier this year to underscore the importance of Mencius’ philosophy of “benevolent rule” in dealing with Taiwan-China affairs.
According to the report, some Chinese officials found Taiwan’s call for China to yield further -concessions under the ECFA’s early harvest program annoying.
However, under a benevolent mind-set, Liu said, justice, righteousness or fairness should always take precedence over unilateral interests.
For its part, Liu said, Taiwan can play the role of vanguard and catalyst in the pursuit of a Chinese cultural renaissance.
As an immigrant society, Taiwan is inclusive and innovative in its cultural development and it can use those assets to help shape new rules of the game for the 21st century, such as how to deal with international disputes with benevolence and devise ways to ensure sustainable development, he added.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS