Xia Yeliang: Taiwan Could be a Model for the Mainland to Develop Democracy

Xia Yeliang: Taiwan Could be a Model for the Mainland to Develop Democracy

Source: China Times

Dec. 19, 2011

The Taipei-based New School for Democracy (華人民主書院) invited Xia Yeliang (夏業良), Professor of Economics at Peking University and visiting scholar at UCLA, to deliver a speech on autocracy and the constitutional system of government yesterday, December 19^th, at the economics faculty of National Taiwan University.

The Mainland’s netizens watched Taiwan’s televised Presidential debates on the Internet in real time. Therefore, the liberal economist Xia Yeliang was optimistic that Taiwan might influence the Mainland’s future development if the former could be a model for the Mainland to develop its democracy, adding that in his eyes, “reform had died” on the Mainland. If the Mainland would like to take steps toward democracy, the entire society and people had to put pressure on the authorities, he said

Xia added that in recent year, many Chinese intellectuals lamented the current political situation because they believed that reforms on the Mainland had died, people no longer could place great hopes in the government to make changes towards real democracy. Because the Mainland’s authorities had completed those easier and softer reforms, such as liberalizing the economy, Beijing would not take any further initiative to undertake political reforms, he said.

Xia stated that he believed that the entire society had to promote jointly democracy on the Mainland. Once people asked for more freedom, democracy and human rights, the Mainland’s government would have no way but to repress or make concessions.

Nevertheless, protests are not necessarily bloody. Xia applauded the artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) for taking a cynical attitude and using varied, humorous protests against the totalitarian authorities, winning wide popular support.

Xia Yeliang said that autocracy might not be overthrown by a single political party, but the result of an amalgamation of various forces. Just like the Berlin Wall, which was torn down not only by a single person, but by concentrated, sustained efforts of all.

 In recent years, Xia Yeliang, as an economist, has been advocating democratic and free reforms on the Mainland. He was also one of the co-signers of the “Charter 08.” In 2009, Xia released an article titled “An Open Letter to Liu Yunshan (劉雲山), Director of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee,” criticizing the Mainland authorities for restricting freedoms of speech and publication, receiving echos in response.

Attachment : none