Win-Win Scenario in the Cross-Strait Dispute over Democracy and Science

 Win-Win Scenario in the Cross-Strait Dispute over Democracy and Science

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 3, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

On May 4, a century ago, over 3,000 students in Beijing hoisted white banners in a demonstration march protesting against the delegation of China to the Paris Peace Conference for forfeiting our rights and humiliating our nation. This patriotic movement was upgraded to a new cultural movement, bringing to China an enormous and far-reaching impact. Today, a hundred years later, such hot-blooded striving for the country and for the people, as well as deep soul-searching for society and culture are still the strongest force pushing for the progress of the country. This merits our remembrance, while this philosophical debate, initiated a century ago, will still continue to impact the future of the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan.

These reflections on the deep-rooted malaise of China, as well as the pursuit of national progress, became at a political level, the revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Founding Father of the Republic of China, at the cultural level, it introduced various new tides of thinking, agitation, discussions, and debates, creating fundamental rocking on the millennial traditional culture and mode of thinking. Hu Shih and Chen Duxiu used the "New Youth" magazine as a base to tout the "New Culture Movement," holding "Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science" as paradigms, advocating salvation of the nation through democracy and science.

Today, the two sides of the Strait have taken different systems in ideologies, and there are also differences in modes of thinking. To a certain extent, the two sides seem to be "Mr. Democracy" on the one side and "Mr. Science" on the other. Taiwan has shaken off the authoritarian system and marched toward democratization, winning global affirmation; the Mainland under one-party rule emphasized love of the party and love of the country, but having obviously achieved considerable acomplishments in governance efficiency, the economy and the development of science and technology. However, the leaders of the May Fourth Movement proposed "Mr. Democracy" and "Mr. Science," believing that the two were the two wheels that promoted the progress of the country and the development of civilization, and ought to complement each other and progress together, not a dichotomy in which each took its own way.

The status quo of the two sides of the Strait is, in reality, a competition between two systems; it may also be regarded as a historic game between Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science on Chinese soil. The merits and shortcomings of the two systems are clearly presented before the eyes of the world; they may also allow people across the Strait to make comparisons and reflections. This kind of competition does not need to be a picture of life and death struggle; the two systems may not necessarily be mutually exclusive. If they can understand each other and learn from each other, gradually adding strong suits and subtracting shortcomings in their respective systems, in the end, it could be progress for both sides at the same time, as well as shortening the distance between them, while this progression may prod the integration of the two systems. The May 4^th leaders who hoorayed reforms a century ago were anxious to see the country strong and prosperous, society progressing and the people well-to-do; don’t we today harbor the same dream, continue to persist in the pursuit of the May Fourth Movement so as to carry on the torch for progress of the country?

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