As I argued in part one of this article, China's anointed future leader, Vice President Hu Jintao (
This is not an age of East versus West, Communism versus Capitalism, nor of the Third World against the First and Second Worlds. This is not an age of nationalism versus hegemony or an age of religious fundamentalism versus religious freedom. This is not an age of alliance-forming in a polarized, triangular or multi-polar world. Today's world has entered a new era in which the free people of free nations have joined together to fight terrorism and fascism, which oppose freedom and human rights.
Can Hu put behind him the limitations of President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) -- as President Bush has those of his predecessor Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin has those of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin -- and become the Chinese leader of this new era? Can he lead China toward freedom and democracy by terminating authoritarian terror?
Some people confidently declare that he can't. They say that Hu will be unable to overcome the systemic limitations of China's communist system, or to extricate himself from Jiang's influence. But neither of these claims stands up to scrutiny.
First, China's system is capable of being overcome. The roots of communism are different from those of fascism. Human freedom was valued by Karl Marx and was one of his goals. This is not true of the values and goals of fascism, however. Many of the Chinese Communist Party members who helped establish the PRC came into the movement by joining the war against fascism to realize freedom and democracy in China. The Communist Party's rule by terror since it came to power has been a betrayal of Marx's ideals.
The former communist
countries of Eastern Europe have already ended authoritarian rule and become free countries. Now it is China's turn. China has to survive and develop in this new era and new world order. It must accept the common values of freedom and human rights and avoid sinking to the level of Bush's "axis of evil" that opposes freedom and human rights -- a path to oblivion.
One alternative is to create a new, free system, letting China obtain a new life of freedom. The other is to refuse to reform the old system, letting the country become the sacrificial victim of Jiang's old system. The choice will be Hu's.
Second, Jiang's hold on power must end. Age and official positions do not indicate the extent of one's influence. The crucial factor is whether or not one's thinking is in line with the current of the times.
Former British prime minister Winston Churchill made his famous "Iron Curtain" speech in the small US town of Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946 and thereby set in motion the history of the second half of the 20th century, in which freedom and democracy defeated the USSR's empire built on military domination.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Jiang is a relic of a bygone age, like Yeltsin, Clinton and Lien. They are all members of an old-timers club.
Ruan Ming is a visiting professor at Tamkang University and a former special assistant to the late Chinese Communist Party secretary-general Hu Yaobang (
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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