This reporter visited and interviewed Mr. Ruan Ming on May 3 to discuss the recent trip to China by Lien Chan, the Chair of Taiwan’s Nationalist Party. Mr. Ruan is an advisor in Taiwan’s Integrated Research Institute, a personal advisor of the former Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and a famous commentator.

Accomplice of CCP to Suppress Freedom and Democracy

Reporter: How do you do, Mr. Ruan. How do you view Lien Chan’s trip to China?

Mr. Ruan Ming: Lien Chan’s performance is terrible. His speech at the Beijing University was an example of this. Taiwan has a democratic system while China has a totalitarian system under a Communist dictatorship. Lien slandered free democracy while he boasted about the dictatorial political system and one party rule by Communist China as he expounded on their historical progression. He said that China had developed quickly not only in its economy but also in politics. He even said that the democratic system in Taiwan was problematic.

Some of Taiwan’s media were deceived, reporting that Lien had talked about the Republic of China (ROC). In reality what he said at Sun Yatsen’s Memorial was that the revolutionary pioneer Sun Yatsen founded the first democratic republic in Asia. He compared the history of the Republic of China as if it was the same as that of the CCP. The Communist Party has its own volume on the history of the ROC. Lien’s language was entirely copied from the language in the Communist Party’s version of the ROC history. His visit helped the CCP to consolidate its totalitarian system; that is against freedom, democracy, and human rights in China.

Stirring up Nationalism to Shift Attention, Chinese Citizens are the Biggest Losers

Mr. Ruan Ming: Every word Lien said was dancing around the baton wielded by Hu Jintao. I don’t think that Lien Zhan is the leader of one of Taiwan’s opposition parties. If he is, he cannot deny the universal value of the free democratic system, even though he can criticize the ruling party. Therefore Lin Zhan is a leader one of the “flower-vase” parties in China. China has a total of 8 “flower-vase” parties. They are so called “democratic parties”, and Lien’s party is number 9.

	Lien Chan (L), Chairman for Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), and Chinese President Hu Jintao hold talks at the Great Hall of People in Beijing, 29 April 2005. (Jason Lee/AFP)

Chinese “flower-vase” parties have three characteristics: first, they accept the leadership of the CCP: second, they assist the CCP to conduct a united front; third, they are politically consistent with the CCP’s languages and ideology. Lien fulfilled all three of these characteristics, even doing better than a “flower-vase” party.

Lien clearly supported nationalism. Chinese “democratic parties” at least maintain a signboard of “democracy”. Lien doesn’t even want to keep that signboard. He kept saying “Chinese nationalism”, “Chinese nationalism”, helping Hu Jintao to stir up the idea of Chinese nationalism in order to suppress the freedom and democracy of the Chinese.

Some said that Lien’s visit harmed Taiwan. I say that the harm to China was even greater. Lien’s visit helped the CCP to create a false impression. He gave Chinese people a false impression that Taiwan’s democracy was in a great mess, just as that claimed by Hu Jintao. Lien actually helped the CCP to stir up nationalism and numb the people of China.

Begging for Peace from a Dictator, Getting War and Extinction in Return

Reporter: Do you think Lien’s visit will promote peace between Taiwan and China, and reduce the probability of war?

Mr. Ruan Ming: Lien carried a “peace banner” to China, seeking peace from its dictator. What he will get in return is war and extinction. There have been many lessons in history; for those who would seek peace from Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong, didn’t they all end up in extinction?

What the CCP wants is not peace; it wants dictatorship and a totalitarian system. It wants military expansion. It enacted its anti-cessation law and increased military expenditures by 12 percent for the purpose of expansion. To seek peace with the CCP, one must talk about democracy and freedom; only democracy and freedom can lead to peace.

It is clear that, if Lien were successful in bringing China’s totalitarian and slavery system to Taiwan, at least half of Taiwan’s population would rise to oppose it. Then the CCP would resort to war. It is better to maintain the status quo and gradually promote freedom and democracy in China through contacts between people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Then the peaceful situation may be maintained.

Therefore Lien’s trip actually incites the CCP’s ambition to swallow up Taiwan. The chance of war increases, not decreases, as a result.

CCP Has Enemies Everywhere, and Is Using the Chinese Nationalist Party to Try To Ease Its Crisis

Reporter: There have been two historical Communist-Nationalist peace settlements. Both were drawn under the circumstance that the CCP was in a grave crisis and that it came under attack from all directions. It used peace talks with the Nationalists to ease the crisis and to replenish support and supplies. Do you think that the same tactics are being used again this time?

Mr. Ruan Ming: The CCP is facing a grave crisis this time again. After enacting the anti-cessation law, the whole world came out to condemn it. Both the US and Japan are against it. The European League was going to sell weapons to China: now they have changed their mind. Taiwan had one million people demonstrating against the anti-cessation law on March 26. The Epoch Times also actively participated by distributing the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party”. Lien is trying to rescue Hu Jintao at a moment when the CCP is facing a serious crisis.

The whole world says that the anti-cessation law is aimed at Taiwan. It intends to destroy Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, to swallow up Taiwan so that it will become a part of China. It is a surprise that the leader of a Taiwan opposition party actually went to China to support the anti-cessation law. While visiting China, Lien did not utter any word of opposition to the law. That is equivalent to whole-hearted support of the CCP; he has become a tool of the CCP’s united front.

The Communist regime is facing challenges of various types; they include the tide of “Nine Commentaries,” members’ resignations and dissatisfaction from farmers and workers. The enactment of the anti-cessation law was forced upon China. The purpose was to stir up nationalism. The Anti-Japanese movement is another tactic. However the street demonstrations eventually backfired and the Communist Party had to call them off for fear that the mass demonstrations might turn against the regime. Lien’s visit came at a time when the CCP was trapped in a difficult position. It provided an opportunity for the Communist regime to mobilize all the media under its control. They widely praised Lien’s nationalism, touting it to be the same as the CCP’s.

Therefore it is clear that Lien was helping the CCP to ease its crisis, just as has happened to the Nationalist Party twice in the past. Lien puffed up Hu’s anti-cessation law and anti-Japanese nationalism, muffling and suppressing all those challengers that are against the CCP. He is an accomplice to Hu’s suppression of people’s freedom and democracy. Lien said that China is in a very good state, the constitution is good, politics are good, and the economy is good. In reality, Lien’s visit is a big blow to Chinese people.

The CCP purchased all kinds of media. It purchased not only Taiwan’s media, but also the international media. For example, CNN is pro-CCP. Its reports sound objective superficially, in reality it reports only those stories that do not embarrassed the CCP. Therefore your paper should try hard to uncover it.

CCP is besieged in layers of crisis, relying on a transfusion of foreign investments

Reporter: How do you appraise the current state and future of the CCP?

Mr. Ruan Ming: China is in serious crisis. I have discussed the subject with the author of the book “The Collapse of China”. He said that the actual problems in China were more serious than that stated in his book. China would have already collapsed according to the criteria for western free and democratic countries. There are serious abuses of human rights, messy accounts, inefficiencies, corruption, and decay in government; a country with all these serious problems could not have sustained itself. Why then has China lasted? It is because free democratic countries provide it with blood transfusions daily.

China is just like a leukemia patient. His blood is completely rotten. He looks healthy because he receives more blood transfusions than he needs. Western free countries invest more than US$ 60 billion annually and transfer advanced technologies to China. These enable the Communist government to exploit Chinese laborers with low wages to create profit. The laborers receive only a tiny share of the profit. Small portions of it go to multi-national companies, Taiwan’s businessmen, and American businessmen. The Chinese government takes the lion share to expand its police force to control the people. Therefore the CCP is relying on international support for its sustenance.

Reporter: On the great wave of the “quit the party” campaign, many people, particularly Chinese people, gradually came to recognize the evil character of the CCP. The “Nine Commentaries” has circulated widely in China. Chinese people are becoming more and more courageous.

Mr. Run Ming: Yes, this is very significant. It has a grave impact on the CCP: it is causing the disintegration of the Communist Party. The CCP is very much afraid of this. We need to awaken more people to quit the party.

[Mr. Ruan Ming is a member of Hu Yaopang’s think tank, the former General Secretary of the CCP. He participated in drafting the documents for the Eleventh Communist Party Congress Third Conference, the most important conference during the reforming period of Ten Xiaoping’s reign. He has served as director of the Theoretical Department of Beijing Daily, a member of the Academic Committee and as deputy director of the Theoretical Section of the CCP’s Central Party School. Since 1988 he has visited and conducted research in several top US universities such as Yale and Princeton, and in Taiwan’s Danjian University. He has also served as a visiting professor in the China Research Institute of the Danjian University since 1997. He is currently an advisor in the Section of Strategy and International Research, Taiwan Integrated Research Institute. Mr. Ruan Ming is a famous commentator; he always has his unique opinions on the world’s important events]