The traditional Chinese culture, both extensive and profound, starts far back and runs a long, long course.More than 2,000 years ago, there emerged in China Confucianism represented by Confucius and Mencius, Taoism represented by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, and many other theories and doctrines that figured prominently in the history of Chinese thought, all being covered by the famous term "the masters' hundred schools".From Confucius to Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the traditional Chinese culture presents many precious ideas and qualities, which are essentially populist and democratic.For example, they lay stress on the importance of kindness and love in human relations, on the interest of the community, on seeking harmony without uniformity and on the idea that the world is for all.Especially, patriotism as embodied in the saying "Everybody is responsible for the rise or fall of the country"; the populist ideas that "people are the foundation of the country" and that "people are more important than the monarch"; the code of conduct of "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you"; and the traditional virtues taught from generation to generation: long suffering and hard working, diligence and frugality in household management, and respecting teachers and valuing education. All these have played a GREat role in binding and regulating the family, the country and the society.
On this year's Teacher's Day which fell on 10thof September, I went to see Professor Ji Xianlin ofPekingUniversityin his hospital ward.Professor Ji, 92, is a GREat scholar in both Chinese and western learning, specializing in oriental studies.I enjoy reading his prose.In our tête-à-tête we talked about the movement of "Eastern learning spreading to the West" and "Western learning spreading to the East".In the 17thand 18thcenturies foreign missionaries translated Chinese classics into European languages and introduced them toEurope, and this aroused great interest in some eminent scholars and enlightenment thinkers there.Descartes, Leibniz, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Goethe and Kant all studied the traditional Chinese culture.
In my younger days I read Voltaire's writings.He said that a thinker who wanted to study the history of this planet must first turn his eyes to the East,Chinaincluded.
Interestingly, one and a half century ago, R.W. Emerson, famous American philosopher and outstanding Harvard graduate, also fell for the traditional Chinese culture.He quoted profusely from Confucius and Mencius in his essays.He placed Confucius on a par with Socrates and Jesus Christ, saying that we read [the moral teachings of the Confucian school] with profit today, though they were "addressed to a state of society unlike ours".
Rereading these words of Voltaire and Emerson today, I cannot but admire their wisdom and farsight.
China today is a country in reform and opening-up and a rising power dedicated to peace.
The late Dr. John King Fairbank used the following words to describeChina's over population and land scarcity.On the land owned by one farmer in theUS, there might live hundreds of people forming a village inChina.He went on to say that although the Americans were mostly farmers in the past, they never felt such pressure of population density.
A large population and underdevelopment are the two factsChinahas to face.SinceChinahas 1.3 billion people, any small individual shortage, multiplied by 1.3 billion, becomes a big, big problem.And any considerable amount of financial and material resources, divided by 1.3 billion, becomes a very low per capita level.This is a reality the Chinese leaders have to keep firmly in mind at all times.
We can rely on no one except ourselves to resolve the problems facing our 1.3 billion people.Since the founding of the People's Republic, we have achieved much in our national reconstruction; at the same time we have made a few detours and missed some opportunities.By 1978, with the adoption of the reform and opening-up policies, we had ultimately found the right path of development - the Chinese people's path of independently building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The essence of this path is to mobilize all positive factors, emancipate and develop the productive forces, and respect and protect the freedom of the Chinese people to pursue happiness.
China's reform and opening-up have spread from rural areas to the cities, from the economic field to the political, cultural and social arenas.Each and every step forward is designed, in the final analysis, to release the gushing vitality of labor, knowledge, technology, managerial expertise and capital, and allow all sources of social wealth to flow to the fullest extent.
For quite some time in the past,Chinahad a structure of highly-centralized planned economy.With deepening restructuring toward the socialist market economy and proGREss in the development of democratic politics, there was gradual lifting of the former improper restrictions, visible and invisible, on people's freedom in choice of occupation, mobility,enterprise, investment, information, travel, faith and lifestyles.This has brought extensive and profound changes never seen before inChina's history.On the one hand, the enthusiasm of the work force in both city and countryside has been set free.In particular, hundreds of millions of farmers are now able to leave their old villages and move into towns and cities, especially in the coastal areas, and tens of millions of intellectuals are now able to bring their talent and creativity into full play.On the other hand, the massive assets owned by the state can now be revitalized, the private capital pool in the amount of trillions ofYuancan take shape, and more than 500 billion US dollars worth of overseas capital can flow in.This combination of capital and labor results in a drama of industrialization and urbanization of a size unprecedented in human history being staged on the 9.6 million square kilometers of land calledChina.Here lies the secret of the 9.4% annual growth rate thatChina's economy has been able to attain in the past 25 years.
The tremendous wealth created byChinain the past quarter of a century has not only enabled our 1.3 billion countrymen to meet their basic needs for food, clothing and shelter, and basically realize a well-off standard of living, but also contributed to world development.Chinaowes all this proGREss to the policy of reform and opening-up and, in the final analysis, to the freedom-inspired creativity of the Chinese people.
It has become so clear to me that at the current stageChinahas an abundant supply of labor in proportion to her limited natural resources and short capital.If no effective measures are taken to protect the fundamental rights of our massive labor force, and in particular the farmer-workers coming to the cities, they may end up in a miserable plight as described in the novels by Charles Dickens and Theodore Dreiser. Without effective protection of the citizens' right to property, it will be difficult to attract and accumulate valuable capital.
Therefore, the Chinese Government is committed to protecting (1) the fundamental rights of all workers and (2) the right to property, both public and private.This has been explicitly provided for inChina's law and put into practice.
