Chapter 33 3. Democracy construction cannot rely on "exchanging blood"

East Asian societies have cultural traditions that are quite different from Western societies. If the biggest feature of Western traditions is a set of customs, habits, and institutions formed on the basis of individuals, then East Asian countries are more based on families and their derivatives. A set of customs, habits and institutions formed by the relationship with people.In view of the differences in cultural traditions, the correct way to build democracy is to integrate one's own cultural traditions and carry out institutional innovations that seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, rather than blindly transforming one's own culture to adapt to Western culture and the political system produced under its influence. "Cultural shake-ups" never succeed.Developing countries copy Western systems, almost copying one failure after another, which can neither solve the problem of corruption nor solve the problem of modernization.We can see from the survey conducted by East Asian Barometer that although the development levels of East Asian countries and societies are different, most of them retain this cultural tradition different from that of the West:

(Source: 2001—2003 East Asian Barometer Surveys) American scholar David Hitchcock also conducted public opinion surveys on citizens of seven countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and the United States. There is a huge difference in the social value ranking of Americans: Americans emphasize individual rights, while East Asian people place more emphasis on the order formed by the relationship between people.The order of priority in East Asian and American public social value identification is: (Source: David Hitchcock, Asia Values ​​and the United States: How Much Con.ict?, Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1994.)

In fact, these surveys only reconfirmed the conclusions that most people in East Asian countries can draw based on common sense.An interesting question is: the United States has always promoted the values ​​that the American people care most about as universal values ​​around the world. Why can’t East Asian countries promote the values ​​that they value most as a priority value orientation?As China rises, it is imperative that we do so internationally.Americans will definitely say that emphasizing social order will lead to dictatorship, but this is a very naive point of view. Autocracy may bring social order, but good governance can also bring social order, just like freedom of speech can be a manifestation of individual freedom, but it can also bring about social order. It can lead to fights and even wars.In addition, in view of the huge differences between Eastern and Western cultural traditions, the best way to build democracy should not be to blindly transform one's own culture to adapt to the political system produced under the influence of Western culture.

The Western tradition of the rule of law based on individual rights is difficult to replicate in non-Western societies. It can be replicated in a few places, but it is difficult to replicate in most places. In fact, there is no need to replicate it.For example, the cultural characteristics of China and even East Asia are "reasonable and reasonable", while Western culture generally only emphasizes "reasonable" and not "reasonable". The probability of success in completely transforming this East Asian culture is not high. The strengths and weaknesses of both cultures, and on this basis, learn from each other's strengths and make institutional innovations.For another example, one of the cultural characteristics of China’s emphasis on family and its derived relationships is that when one party is in trouble, all parties support it. This relationship extends from family members to relatives, friends, colleagues, and even the entire country. This cultural tradition helps Chinese people overcome difficulties. There are many difficulties that are insurmountable in the eyes of Westerners: from helping laid-off workers to life relief, to going to school, medical treatment, elderly care, buying a house, to earthquake relief, etc.You must transform the flexible intimate relationship of Chinese family members into the same rigid contractual relationship as in the United States, and think that this is the only correct way. It will not work in China or in East Asian society. The correct attitude should be to combine the two. Combining the strengths of those who make innovations.

East Asian societies should strive to proceed from their own realities and constantly explore their own development path and new democratic system from the interaction between tradition and modernity. Only in this way can the political system formed after such exploration be viable and cost-effective Smaller, more effective.Copying the Western "struggle culture" that emphasizes individual rights into a "harmonious culture" society that emphasizes the balance between rights and obligations will always encounter problems of acclimatization.If it is not done well, it will lead to social confrontation and division, which can be illustrated by the difficulties faced by the above-mentioned East Asian democracies.

In order to establish a democratic system that truly reflects the will of the people, we must first get rid of the shackles of rigid Western political discourse, especially the so-called "democracy and autocracy" discourse.Many people in Asia also like to use the concept of "democracy and autocracy" to explain why they must choose the path of Western democracy, and even accept Western political discourse without thinking. How much interpretive power does the concept of "democracy and autocracy" still have today?This concept can explain some phenomena, but it obviously lacks explanatory power, and it is increasingly reduced to an ideological tool.This concept oversimplifies the vastly different political forms of the world: in this world, there is only the opposition between democracy and autocracy, either democracy or autocracy, and democracy is good, autocracy is bad, and autocracy is fascism or Hitler.As mentioned earlier, if the world can really be classified in such a simple way, how can the democratic system choose Hitler who hates humanity?Singapore, which the West considers to be very undemocratic, has significantly higher levels of governance than Taiwan and South Korea, let alone a large number of so-called democratic countries in the third world. How can this be explained?

An important experience of China's reform and opening up is to judge a policy and the quality of a political system from its "content" and "results". It is conducive to the development of social productivity, the enhancement of comprehensive national strength, and the improvement of people's living standards.This line of thinking also inspires us to discuss democratic construction, because Deng Xiaoping focused on the content and results of judging socialism, rather than on the form and procedure. infinite space.In fact, even from the perspective of Western democratic theory itself, major Western countries today simplify democracy into procedural democracy, resulting in the emergence of a large number of inferior democracies.The world today is full of shoddy democracies whose democratic procedures are roughly "right" but whose democratic outcomes are abysmal.We need to "put order out of chaos", we need to discuss and define democracy from the perspective of "content" and "results", and from the realization of "good governance".

Based on these arguments, I believe that East Asian societies, and even non-Western societies as a whole, should boldly explore how to combine their own cultural traditions to establish a new democratic system.Perhaps we can follow such an idea of ​​exploration: if Western democracy is now reduced to procedural democracy, we can try to do the opposite, that is, start from the content to explore new forms. In the process of exploring a new type of democracy, three experiences from China's reform and opening up are very important.One is to take the road of gradual reform empiricism, start from reality, not from a perfect ideal design, proceed step by step, keep experimenting, give play to the initiative of the people, don't set too many frames for yourself, and cross the river by feeling the stones In the end, we will always touch the stones and cross the river, and finally form our own relatively complete new institutional framework.Our general direction should be to gradually establish a first-class talent selection mechanism, a first-class democratic supervision mechanism, and a first-class social consultation mechanism.Like economic reform, while we don't have a road map, we have a compass.With the general direction and strategy determined, all localities are encouraged to boldly explore and try, and gradually find out a road to democratic construction that suits China's national conditions.

The second is driven by domestic demand. Starting from China's real domestic demand and effective domestic demand, only reforms driven by effective domestic demand will be relatively stable.What is effective domestic demand?Effective domestic demand is the real domestic demand generated by a country's ideology, culture, and people's sentiments. This is the biggest internal driving force for political reform.At the current stage in China, the strongest domestic demand is the construction of anti-corruption mechanisms, the construction of inner-party democratic mechanisms, the construction of a service-oriented government, and the construction of a society ruled by law.An important reason why non-Western countries’ democratic experiments continue to fail is that they do not start from their own domestic needs, but from the requirements of Western countries, which is seriously divorced from the real needs of their own people. The common people want to create job opportunities, but the government and parliament are doing it every day. Arguing about things like constitutional revision and abolition of the death penalty, this is the case in Kenya, Mongolia, Ukraine, etc.

The third is people’s livelihood first, that is to say, not only the main task of the country is to improve people’s livelihood, but also the construction of democracy should focus on comprehensively improving the quality of people’s life at a higher and broader level. High-quality services are implemented to enable people to live a safer, freer, happier and more dignified life.One of the main reasons why the third world’s democratic experiments fail frequently is that the West promotes democracy for democracy’s sake. As a result, the political machine is idling, leading to endless internal friction, and the lives of most ordinary people are not getting better, but worse Such a democracy is naturally unsustainable.With these three, non-Western societies should be able to gradually explore a path and form of democracy that suits their own national conditions, and eventually the quality of democracy will even be higher than that of Western democracy.

Democracy building is actually like opening a door. The door can be pushed or pulled open.Western culture is used to pushing, emphasizing the differences and confrontations of different interests, and likes the philosophy of struggle; while East Asian and Chinese cultures are more accustomed to pulling, emphasizing the symbiosis and integration of different interests, advocating a philosophy of harmony, and finally looking at the actual effect of solving problems.The success rate of the Western democratic model in countries with non-Western culture is extremely low. That set of philosophy of struggle has torn many countries apart. Now East Asian countries, including China, can explore the method of pulling to open the door of democracy and explore the establishment of a This is also an important opportunity for East Asian countries and societies to make their own contributions to mankind. As a "civilization-type "country" China should not give in. Conclusion A new round of "big changes unseen in a thousand years" Looking at the past ten years of the 21st century, I think the world has roughly witnessed three trends: One is the trend of religiousization, which is specifically manifested in the expansion of the influence of Islamic extremism in the Islamic world. This trend is often associated with terrorism , was opposed by most countries in the world.The second is the semi-religious trend. The specific manifestation is that the United States, led by Bush Jr., promotes American democracy in the world with a kind of fanaticism of Christian missionaries. The result is disastrous. There are no successful examples of American-style democracy in the third world either.The third is the tide of modernization led by China. Although this trend has its own flaws, China has vigorously eliminated poverty and promoted modernization, which has led to the rapid rise of a "civilized country" on such a large scale as China, and has also driven the development of the entire world. Some of us are always worried about "connecting" with the international community.In fact, the biggest feature of the rise of a "civilized country" is that you don't have to worry too much about this issue, because you are the revival of a 5,000-year-old main civilization, and this process will be a process of constantly generating new standards.In some aspects, we should take the initiative to connect with others, because we have a cultural heritage of endless learning and good manners; in some aspects, we don’t need to integrate, because what we do is in line with our national conditions; It is a question of convergence, because our approach represents the future. Some of us are always worried about whether the West "recognizes" China.In fact, the biggest feature of a "civilized country" is that it can exist and develop independently without the approval of others. Its political and economic model was different from others in many aspects in the past, and it is also different now, and it will be its own in the future. Systematic.I have already said this in the "Introduction" of this book: a "civilized country" will not follow others, will not copy the West or any other model, it will only continue to evolve and develop along its own unique track and logic; It may also experience bumps and bumps on the road to rise, but the momentum of its rise is irresistible, and the direction of its rise is irreversible; this kind of "civilized country" has the ability to absorb all the strengths of other civilizations without losing itself, And will make original contributions to world civilization. Some of us always believe that China's economic reform has made great progress, but political reform has lagged behind, which has caused many problems today.I would suggest a different way of thinking.Can we look at it this way: we have only made some "tapping potential" and "fine-tuning" our political system, and the country has risen rapidly, and we have achieved achievements that most countries in the world can only hope to achieve.In other words, even under a not-so-perfect system, under the condition of so-called "political reform lagging behind", we can compete with any non-Western country that adopts the Western model and win, and the whole West has been strongly shaken. One-step reform is of course not negating our own system like Gorbachev did, but first affirming our successful institutional factors, and then brainstorming on this basis, constantly improving and perfecting our system, and finally realizing the transformation of the Western model. Surpass in an all-round way, just like Shanghai surpasses New York today. In fact, economic reform is also like this. Western countries have not yet recognized our market economy status, but what does it matter?In fact, the West has increasingly felt that it cannot compete with our socialist market economic model.We are on the right path. There is no best model in the world, only the one that suits you best.If we can continue to promote political reforms in line with the conditions of the people and the country, further straighten out various relationships, and further unleash the wisdom and potential of the people, that will be a more spectacular cause, so the good news is yet to come.We must not peep at the world with the mentality of a big country and a small people, and we don't even have the courage to raise our heads and face the West squarely.In the past 30 years, I have visited more than 100 countries. Generally speaking, China is the country with the most successful development and the country with the fastest improvement in people's lives.The Chinese are the people in the world who have the least reason to be pessimistic about the future.The problems we have encountered have been encountered by other rising powers in the world. So far, we have handled them much better than they did at that time, and we are doing no worse than them today in many aspects.Our model, flawed as it is, can be improved, and its overall success is indisputable. There is a Western proverb: Eagles sometimes fly lower than birds, but birds can never fly as high as eagles.We are still not as good as others in some aspects, but it will be difficult for other countries to reach the heights that China can achieve. This is where the confidence for the rise of a "civilized country" lies.From the perspective of the development of human history, the eagle in China has been flying higher than the West for thousands of years, but it has been flying lower than the West in the past two or three hundred years. Now, through decades of perseverance China has fully absorbed the strengths of the West and other civilizations, and at the same time developed its own advantages. Finally, in the new century, the eagle of China spreads its wings again, flying into the sky, and is flying to a height that is difficult for Western civilization to reach. .The biggest difference between Chinese and Western civilizations in this contest is that Chinese civilization can learn from others’ strengths and make up for their own weaknesses in all aspects, while Western civilization lacks the ability to learn from others. This is probably why Chinese civilization can last for five thousand years without decay. And the root cause of the decline of other civilizations. On this issue, some people of insight in the West seem to see it much more clearly than some of our elites.Dominique Moisi, a senior consultant at the French Institute of International Relations, wrote an article in the Financial Times on August 9, 2010, talking about the changes in the balance of power in the world brought about by the rise of China. The concept of "Western World": Nearly two years ago, Lehman Brothers collapsed; not so long ago, the euro nearly collapsed.These two events opened a new chapter in history, and we entered the "post-Western world".To understand what it means to live in such a world, we must first look back to the "pre-West", the world before the British conquered India and China began to decline.For more than two centuries after the end of the "pre-Western world," the West lived side by side with "another" civilization it considered inferior.This era is a thing of the past.Demographers predict that by 2050, the United States and Europe will account for just 12 percent of the planet's population.In short, the "other" civilization is now on par with our West.In fact, they outshine us in many ways—from their desire to succeed to their unwavering confidence in their future.We must now ask ourselves what emerging countries can teach us, not just what we can teach them. British scholar Martin Jacques also wrote an article "Understanding China: The West Has Misjudged China for Decades" in the Los Angeles Times on November 22, 2009, explaining why the West has always misjudged China's rise.Here's what he said: China has embraced a market economy, but it has shunned Western-style freedoms.Moreover, China's power is still growing.The relationship between China and the United States is not what it used to be: the United States feels weak, and China feels strong.This is not a temporary change that seems to be reversed once the US is rid of its mountain of debt.More precisely, it reflects a profound and gradual shift in the balance of power between the two countries, with growing Chinese self-confidence.There has always been a fairly widespread belief in the West that China will eventually become like us: a market economy, for example, will lead to democratization.The problem here is not as simple as Western-style democracy and human rights.China is nothing like the West, and never will be. China's history and culture are very different from those of any western country.We predicted that the country would fall apart, that economic growth would not be sustainable, and that China's promise of "one country, two systems" was not sincere, but our predictions and views on China were wrong again and again.The root cause of our inability to accurately predict China's future lies in our failure to understand its past.China is essentially a civilized country, and its sense of identity comes from its long history as a civilized country.Of course, there are many civilizations in the world, such as Western civilization, but China is the only civilized country.The Chinese see the state as the guardian, administrator, and embodiment of civilization whose job it is to preserve unity.The legitimacy of the state is thus embedded in Chinese history.This is completely different from the country in the eyes of Westerners.If we want to understand China, we must go beyond the limitations of Western reality, experience and concept.For two hundred years, first Europe, then the United States, the West dominated the world.China's rise to world power marked the end of that era. As a powerful civilization that has lasted for thousands of years, and has learned a lot from others in the fierce international competition in the past hundred years, and has digested, transformed, and recreated these things, China has gradually formed its own unique civilization. A series of practices and standards, such a development model and discourse will definitely affect the evolution of the world order.China is a big country, not a small one.In this world, small countries can eat and free ride, but big countries cannot, and big countries need to develop in an all-round way.The development and changes of major countries affect the world structure, because changes in major countries produce scale effects, standard evolution, and paradigm changes. Now there is such a trend: as long as anything is processed by the Chinese model, a new set of coordinates will be created in the world immediately.These coordinates are not perfect, and there is still room for improvement in many places, but generally speaking, these coordinates have actually promoted China’s own progress and even the progress of the whole world, such as hosting the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, and World Expo, such as When it comes to building subways, expressways, and high-speed railways, such as poverty alleviation, earthquake relief, urban reconstruction, establishment of development zones, attraction of foreign investment, promotion of state-owned enterprise restructuring, and promotion of new energy construction and new rural construction, we have formed our own methods and methods. standard.We did this, and the West didn't understand it at first, but in the end it was shocked, even a big shock, and it turns out that things can be done this way.As a "civilized country", our cultural genes are too strong. If you don't want Chinese characteristics, you will have Chinese characteristics. The key is that we should not use Chinese characteristics to refuse to learn good things from others, but use Chinese characteristics to absorb them. Good things for others.The tide of modernization led by China is a trend full of Chinese characteristics. It is actually changing the political and economic map of the world, and will change the map of world political civilization. As a rapidly rising "civilized country", we can look back at the Western concept now, and look at the Western concept that only when a "civilized country" or "quasi-civilized country" enters a "nation-state" can it become a modern country. Limitations and destructiveness: The result of this concept is often that the country is constantly divided, and the division is smaller and smaller, and each division will cause many bloody conflicts.Not to mention the hundreds of years of fighting in history, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the continuous internal chaos in India in the past two decades alone are enough to reflect the paranoia of the Western concept of "nation-state".In a sense, the EU's promotion of the integration of European countries can also be seen as an attempt to move from a "nation-state" to a "civilized state."But European integration is not easy, after all, Europe has been divided for thousands of years.European integration has also been going on for more than half a century, but its overall strength is still facing severe challenges, and its overall cohesion is far lower than that of our "civilized country". It seems to be a general trend in the world that "nation-states" move toward some form of regional integration, or even integration within a certain civilization.With the intensification of globalization and international competition, more and more problems need to be better dealt with beyond the shackles of nation-states, and need to be better resolved through integration and cooperation between countries with the same culture.The movement for European integration, represented by the European Union, embodies an effort.If European countries cannot really unite, the fate of Europe's overall recession will be difficult to reverse.Only when Europe is united can it have strength and weight.Far-sighted politicians in Europe have long seen this point: European countries are actually small countries, the only difference is that some countries have realized this point, and some countries have not yet realized this point. The resistance to European integration is very strong, and the resistance to African integration is even greater, because there is no pan-African common market so far.The African continent has never been unified either, so there is little cohesion and complementarity among African countries.From the Pan-Arabist movement in the Arab world, to the Pan-Africanist movement in Africa, to various new integration initiatives in Latin America, we can all see some kind of ideal and aspiration for the integration of civilizations because of closer economic, cultural and Political integration can often make small and medium-sized countries more united, and thus better defend and advance their own interests on the world stage.But on the whole, except for the EU which has achieved a certain degree of success, other regions have to redouble their efforts, so the Chinese can be proud of being the only "civilized country" in the world. By extension, we can also use Chinese values ​​and successful practices to re-examine all other concepts and standards defined by the West, such as democracy, autocracy, human rights, freedom, universal suffrage, rule of law, multi-party system, market economy, and the role of government , civil society, public intellectuals, GDP, human development index, Gini coefficient, etc., what should be used for reference, what should be enriched, what should be rhetorical, what should be discarded, and what should be redefined. In this process, we will gradually establish our own independent political discourse and standard system, and recommend many successful concepts and standards proven by China's experience to the world.All the problems in the world today require the wisdom of the Chinese to solve them. The Chinese should do their part and make greater contributions to the progress of mankind. From a longer-term historical perspective, after China's overall strength surpasses that of the United States, the political, economic, and ideological landscape of the entire world may undergo profound changes with the rise of China, a "civilized country."The dominance of Western discourse in the world will come to an end, various old indicator systems will be revised, and various new indicator systems will emerge as the times require, and the Chinese model and discourse will be recognized by the whole world.If it is said that a century and a half ago, the West's meddling in China brought "great changes unseen in a millennium" to China, then the world may be witnessing and will continue to witness the "unprecedented changes in a thousand years" brought to the West and the whole world by the rise of China. great change."In the final analysis, it is not that China itself wants to influence the world in this way, but the depth, breadth, and strength of the rise of a "civilized country" will inevitably produce such shock waves and influence.This is a great change unprecedented in human history.One of the biggest characteristics of this rise is that as long as you change yourself, the world will change because of your change, because you are too big, and whatever you do can become a world-class scale and produce world-class influence.This could culminate in a decade or two when China's economy surpasses that of the United States. I remember that a European philosopher once divided the writers in the world into three categories: meteors, planets, and stars.The effects of the first type are only fleeting.The second type is like planets, with more permanent effects.The third class is like the stars, whose splendor and influence are the most ancient.In fact, the classification of countries in the world is roughly the same.Many countries are like shooting stars, they are fleeting.Certain special historical events will occasionally promote them to the international stage, but they will soon disappear.The United States is more like the second category.The United States is the superpower in the world today, and there are many satellites revolving around this planet, but the planet can only manage its system, and the system managed by the United States is going downhill.America has all the hallmarks of a modern state, but lacks the intellectual radiance of a profound civilization.Just because the planet is closer to us, it appears to be brighter than distant stars, but this is an illusion. "Civilized country" China is more like a star.It has gone through countless years, has been watching the space, running on its own orbit, and shining its own light independently.Because the star is too high and too far away, its brilliance will take many years to be seen by the world, but once people realize that this is a star rather than a planet, human beings will understand it and other planets. The understanding of the whole world and the universe will be changed accordingly.Stars and planets are different in size, texture, composition, and orbit.The light of a star comes from itself, and it is also more profound and brighter. As I write this, I can't help but think of Arnold Toynbee, the most prestigious contemporary British historian.He has made a detailed comparison and research on different civilization systems in the world. In 1973, he was asked: "If you were reborn as a human, which country would you like to be born in and what job would you like to do?" He thought for a while, and then replied: "I would like to be born in China. Because I think that China will be the future of all mankind. It will play a very important role. If I were born Chinese, I think I can do some kind of valuable work." He then added, "As far as the Chinese are concerned, they have been more successful than any other nation in the world for thousands of years. They have united hundreds of millions of people politically and culturally. They have shown the ability to unify politically and culturally, and have unparalleled successful experience. Such unity is the absolute requirement of today's world." It should be said that Toynbee said It reveals the real meaning of the rise of China, a "civilized country", to the whole world.