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Chinese civil society too weak for
democracy: Xu
By Su YUng-yao / Staff Reporter
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Research Center for Cross-Strait Exchanges on
Democracy and Culture co-founder Lo Wen-chia, journalist Ho Jung-shin, Chinese
writer Xu Zhiyuan and CommonWealth -magazine deputy chief editor Chang Tieh-chih,
left to right, speak at a salon on -problems facing China in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
While academic debate over the future of democracy in China remains fashionable
in certain circles, in reality it is of dubious value, Chinese writer Xu Zhiyuan
(³\ª¾»·) said yesterday.
Xu made the remarks at a conference in Taipei organized by the Research Center
for Cross-Strait Exchanges on Democracy and Culture.
Born in China in 1976, Xu is a columnist for Yazhou Zhoukan magazine and the
Financial Times. He is also the independent founder of the famous One-Way Street
Library.
On the prospects of a democratized China, Xu said the reason Chinese academics
had ¡§high hopes¡¨ for civil society was primarily because of the defeatist views
toward ¡§great revolutions.¡¨
Old-style revolutions such as those launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
are now seen as failures, he said.
Past hopes for progress to a more ¡§enlightened leadership¡¨ have also been proven
to be ill-founded, he said, adding that as a result, civil society had become
¡§the straw at which the drowning man clutches.¡¨
Present-day China is something akin to Taiwan in the 1970s, he said, with a
gradual loosening of the political system. China also faces problems like those
facing Taiwan, such as the fragmentation of civil society, which is also
becoming increasingly superficial, Xu said.
As a result, China, where the CCP retains a firm grip on power, but where people
can open independent bookstores, must perform a difficult balancing act and
failure to do so could bring the whole house of cards crashing down, he said.
Chinese academics hope a future China would allow for political plurality
granting greater individual freedoms, he said. However, were the CCP to
relinquish power now, it would immediately be taken over by the corporate
sector, he said.
In such an environment, civil society would still be at the bottom of the
ladder.
This is neither optimism nor pessimism, he said, but rather about acknowledging
reality.
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