PRC absent from forum on Taiwan-U.S.-China relations

At the event, held in Taipei and on the heels of China’s 17th National Congress earlier in October, scholars and speakers from both the Republic of China (ROC) and the U.S. presented their papers and thoughts on U.S.-Taiwan and cross-strait relations, though there were no scheduled discussion on U.S.-China interaction or policy direction.

Hsu Szu-chien, an assistant research fellow at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica research institute, said at the first panel’s discussion on China’s future political development that despite Chinese President Hu Jintao’s mentioning of the idea “democracy” over 50 times in his speech, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must “learn to accept the people’s choice over its own” before it is able to improve its governance of the rising power.

Hsu argued that it is imperative to continue pushing forward with what he views as the recently successful experiment of direct democratic elections of Township Party Secretary.

David Zweig, director of the Center on China’s Transnational Relations at China’s Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, later commented on Hsu’s paper, saying “I’ve always liked township party secretaries more than township directors,” reminiscing about an embarrassing experience he endured when tricked by a water-chugging party director into drinking enough hard spirits to leave a lasting negative impression of the director.

Elaborating on the state of China’s progress as a potentially democratic country, Zweig remembered that he had been “very excited” at the first alleged democratic village elections held in the socialist country in 1987 to little short-term avail in CCP politics. Zweig cautioned against such impulsive enthusiasm by adding that it should not be forgotten that “it took Taiwan 30 years to move up from township elections to presidential elections.”

Speaker David Bachman, a professor from the Jackson School of International Studies at Washington University, argued that while there is less factionalism within the CCP, in what is now the 5th generation of leaders, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “does not know what sustainable growth is, despite Hu Jintao’s frequent use of it in his speech” at the 17th Party Congress. It is implied by Bachman that the “unsustainability” of the government can be seen by its persistence in “rewarding people who get the job done, while it doesn’t matter how they do it.”

There were no Chinese scholars or researchers available for comment.

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