Published: October 3, 2015<\/p>\n
Dissent keeps rolling in, not only from \u201cdissidents.\u201d Over the week-long National Day holidays in China, Ren Zhiqiang (\u4efb\u5fd7\u5f37), a high-profile real estate mogul who has earned the nickname \u201cthe Cannon\u201d online for his provocative opinions, took aim at the notion of the \u201cNew China.\u201d To a global audience, Ren\u2019s argument may seem obvious, but not to the hundreds of millions Chinese who have been indoctrinated, unthinkingly, with the Party\u2019s \u201cNew China.\u201d \u2014 The Editors<\/p>\n
On this day [October 1] 66 years ago, the central people\u2019s government of the People\u2019s Republic of China was established. But did this day declare to the world that a new country had emerged, or that a new regime was established to replace the old one?<\/p>\n
From the perspective of traditional Chinese culture and international law, China is still the same China. China\u2019s culture, national borders, and treaties signed with other countries in the past\u2014none of these underwent any change. All that happened was the government of the Republic of China under the Nationalists (\u56fd\u6c11\u515a) lost more and more of the area under its control, and the Chinese Communist Party, who said it was representing the interests of the broad masses of the Chinese people, and its People\u2019s Republic of China government, came to control the principle area of mainland China. They announced that they had replaced the Republic of China in governing China, and began to exercise national sovereignty.<\/p>\n
Indeed, if the People\u2019s Republic of China is a new country, then it would have no way to carry on the original country\u2019s culture, history, national boundaries, international protocols and diplomatic relations\u2014and in particular, its status in the United Nations and other international organizations would differ.<\/p>\n
The so-called \u201cNew China\u201d indicated precisely that it wanted to take over everything of the existing country, but also believed that they had established a new country.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s a new country, then it must have all countries in the world recognize anew its place in the international order, reestablishing their diplomatic ties with the new country. If it\u2019s a new regime, then it needs to contest with the old regime for its international place and relations with other countries\u2014the original international relations don\u2019t change because the regime does. At the same time that the new regime is recognized, it also inherits the former country\u2019s international rights and duties.<\/p>\n
The government established on October 1 was only truly recognized by the international community, and had the right to represent China, when Deng Xiaoping walked in the United Nations representing PRC, replacing the Republic of China in the UN and the UN Security Council. Before then, it was the Republic of China government representing China on the world stage.<\/p>\n
Before that the PRC government was only recognized by, and had diplomatic relations with, a small number of countries. It\u2019s not that other countries didn\u2019t recognize there was a China, or never thought there could be two Chinas, but that they didn\u2019t recognize that the People\u2019s Republic of China government could represent China\u2014they only recognized that the Republic of China represented China.<\/p>\n
From the configuration of permanent member states in the United Nations Security Council, it can be seen that the world didn\u2019t see the People\u2019s Republic of China as a newly established country\u2014they simply looked at whether the new government could represent China. What the PRC inherited was the position of China in the United Nations\u2014the position established during World War II, through the great achievements of the war of resistance against Japan (\u53cd\u6cd5\u897f\u65af\u6218\u4e89)\u2014formerly represented by the Republic of China government.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just as, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new government of Russia represented the international place formerly occupied by the Soviet Union. Russia isn\u2019t a newly established country\u2014it simply inherited the Soviet Union\u2019s international position and diplomatic relations, including the international agreements signed by the Soviet Union. And the former Soviet Union satellite states, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, each reestablished their respective diplomatic relations and positions in the UN.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s precisely because the People\u2019s Republic of China was the sole representative of China\u2019s sovereignty that the Republic of China could no longer represent China in the United Nations or in relations with other countries. It was only with the permission of the People\u2019s Republic of China that it was allowed to enter these organizations, and participate in international events, under the name of Chinese Taipei.<\/p>\n
Even till today, many people living in mainland China still harbor a misunderstanding that October 1 was the birth of a new country. They think that the homeland just had its 66th birthday. But this ancient nation of China has a history of thousands of years. All the changes of dynasty in this country are merely the changes in rulers (or changes in governments who say they represent China\u2019s sovereignty)\u2014they\u2019re not changes of the actual nation.<\/p>\n
China is still that nation with a history of thousands of years of traditional culture. Every change in ruler is just a part of the nation\u2019s history\u2014it\u2019s the continuation of history, not a new start.<\/p>\n
If you think this is a country with just 66 years of history, then how could there be a 70th anniversary celebration of the war of resistance against Japan? How could there be the successive dynasties of rulers and the teachings of Confucius and Mencius?<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re shouting fervent patriotic slogans, please don\u2019t think that the country you love is merely the People\u2019s Republic of China established in 1949, and don\u2019t think that the People\u2019s Republic of China is a newly founded country.<\/p>\n
This ancestral land of ours, this nation, also includes all of the history before 1949, and it includes the territory not under the control of the People\u2019s Republic of China, but still under the administration of the Republic of China. You absolutely can\u2019t say that loving Taiwan isn\u2019t loving the homeland, or isn\u2019t loving China.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just like how the people and government of the Republic of China will never acknowledge that the People\u2019s Republic of China is a new country, and have believed all along that there\u2019s only one China\u2014just as how the PRC has never recognized Taiwanese independence, and only recognizes one China. Therefore, we must acknowledge that what was established in 1949 was a new government, not a new country. (If it was a new country, then it would have no right to take as its own a region that it had neither occupied nor exercised administration control over\u2014whereas as a successor state, it could.)<\/p>\n
The new government was established by the Chinese People\u2019s Political Consultative Conference, on September 21, 1949, by electing the Central People\u2019s Government.<\/p>\n
Thus at the rostrum overlooking Tiananmen Square on October 1, Mao Zedong announced that \u201cthe Central People\u2019s Government has been established.\u201d What was originally planned for the big ceremony held on October 1 was not for the establishment of the People\u2019s Republic of China, but the ceremony celebrating the establishment of the Central Government.<\/p>\n
Every Chinese person must know that on October 1, 1949, what was established was not a new China. China established a new Central People\u2019s Government through the process of consultation and election by multiple political parties! This holiday is not that of the birth of a new country, but the creation of a new government.<\/p>\n
When the whole of China celebrates this great holiday, be sure not to forget its original historical aspiration. This holiday does not signify the establishment of a new country, but of China establishing a new central government! Today is not the 66th birthday of our homeland, but the anniversary of a new government.<\/p>\n
I hope this new government can abide by the initial promises it made, and actually realize the \u201ccommon platform\u201d it held up when coming to power: bestow the citizens their rights, and bestow them the united front of a democratic system.<\/p>\n
Ren Zhiqiang was the chairman of the Hua Yuan Real Estate Group until late 2014 when he retired and one of the most well-known, and well compensated, executives in China. His regular, biting social commentary on current affairs has attracted over one million followers on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Published: October 3, 2015 Dissent keeps … Continue reading
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