From: jzhang@SDCC3.UCSD.EDU
Subject:      Re: China's interests
Reply-To: jzhang@SDCC3.UCSD.EDU
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 12:38:08 GMT
Comments: To: china-nt@uga.cc.uga.edu

In article <Btzu4M.Euv@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> Haosheng Zhou
 <philz@ee.umanitoba.ca> writes:
>I would like to comment on "China's interests" here.
>
>A concept such as "China's interests" is always controversial and cannot
>be defined by one sentence. Also, Chinese's interests are not always
>accumulative. On the contrary, Chinese's interests are often opposite
>with each other.

I think Haosheng has a very good point here. A society is often
composed of people who have different values. It is very difficult to
have everybody agree on the definition of an "overall development
index", and ask everybody to optimize such an index.

>Now let us take a look at China. The interests of Chinese peoples from
>Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong are different. In fact, CCP and KMT are
>still enemy and CCP is still trying hard to eliminate the living space
>of Taiwan in international communities.
>
>In Mainland China, there are interests of Tibetan and Mongolian etc.
>In Taiwan, there are interests of DCP (or CDP?) besides of those of KMT.
>
>Question: who can represent all Chinese peoples (or Chinese's interests,
>so to speek)? NO ONE CAN except some illusions from politician.
>
>Totalitarianists in China always claim that they represent Chinese
>people. For this sake then they have to suppress other peoples who they
>cannot represent. This is, part of Chinese people discriminate against
>other Chinese peoples. Yes, Chinese people discriminate against Chinese
>peoples. Such discrimination is even stronger than that from racism
>considering that Chinese are so kind to foreigners.
>
>We need a government and a constitution that do not discriminate Chinese
>peoples. We need a system in which different peoples can live, not kill
>with each other.
>
>If one can, at the most, represent a group of people, then what can he
>do in his activities? Shen Tong, for example, acts for a group of people
>who are concerned with human rights. Some of his comrades are still in
>jail and some, were dead. I am sure some other people have different
>interests but this does not hurt that Shen Tong has done his best for
>the interests of his group, with his bravery. Could every Chinese act
>for his group, like what Shen Tong has done, China would have a bright
>tomorrow.
>
>Bottom line: don't try to represent all Chinese people and their
>interests. Always think about yourself and your group. If one can not
>identify his group, he will be in trouble.

I am not so sure about this. Look at ex-Yugoslavia. Everyone claims
that he is doing the best for his group, and we are seeing endless
and senseless killings of different ethnic groups. Is this example
completely irrelevant to China? I am not too optimistic. Overall
solutions which satisfy everyone are extremely hard to find. However,
this does not mean that one group of people can do whatever they wish.
It is my belief that the world today is so interdependent, that the best
solution for everyone and every group is often found by seeking
consensual actions which take into account of other people's interests,
rather than by violating their interests. This is also true for the
course of democracy and human rights in China, and this is why
activities like "Toycott" are not likely to help improve China's
human rights situation.

>Haosheng Zhou

Zhenqin Li
jzhang@sdcc3.ucsd.edu
Newsgroups: talk.politics.china