An exiled Chinese dissident on Sunday questioned the ability of China’s government to survive for eight more years.
“Many countries such as ... France, Germany and Russia transformed themselves into a republic system after experiencing tens of years of dictatorship,” Xin Haonian (辛灝年) said in a speech in Taipei.
Russia went through 74 years of totalitarian rule between 1917 when the Russian empire was overthrown by the February Revolution and the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, “thus I would say that there is still a question of whether Chinese Communist Party [CCP]-controlled China, which has existed for more than 66 years, can sustain itself for eight more years,” he said.
He said that since while celebrating the 40th anniversary of end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) in 1985, Beijing, as part of its “united front tactics” against Taiwan, for the first time recognized that the “Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] also played a part in the war against Japanese invasion,” resulting in the “mass study” of the Republic of China (ROC) and the publication of articles on the war, Xi said.
“The new China” as has been espoused by Beijing, should have been the ROC, rather than the People’s Republic of China, because even during the Beiyang government (1912-1928) period — when China was ruled by warlords — the republic was more open that it is now, he said.
The then-ROC had a fairer judicial system than the PRC has now and people enjoyed greater freedom of expression, as evidenced by the more than 1,000 papers published by the private sector during that time, he said.
Xin, 67, who was a standing member of the People’s Congress of Anhui Province before he went into exile in the US more than 20 years ago, said that Taiwan should be proud of itself because it is the only democratic government in China’s 5,000-year history.
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