Overseas Chinese Dissidents Seek to Revive Constitutionalism for a Future Democratic China

Chinese Paramilitary police officers stand guard below a portrait of the late leader Mao Zedong in front of the Forbidden City at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on June 4, 2014. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Commentary

In early March, some overseas Chinese pro-democracy activists held the first National Affairs Conference (NAC) in Washington to discuss the path forward for China in a post-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) era. They formulated a “blueprint for a democratic China” based on constitutional principles.

On NTD’s Chinese language program “Pinnacle View,” two U.S.-based Chinese dissidents who participated in the NAC discussed China’s century-long constitutional history and the road to future reconstruction.

The Chinese Republic

Modern China once established the first republic in Asia, the Republic of China, but due to internal conflicts and the world wars, it failed to establish a stable constitutional republic. The goal of Chinese activists at the NAC is to dismantle the CCP and rebuild a free constitutional republic.

Wang Juntao, leader of the China Democracy Party who was sentenced to 13 years in prison in China after organizing student protests in 1989, explained on “Pinnacle View” that although constitutional republics take various forms in modern politics, they share three common characteristics. Firstly, citizens’ rights, including various freedoms and basic human rights, must be fully respected and protected. Secondly, all state institutions must have a mandate from citizens through a fair and free election. Thirdly, there must be a system of checks and balances for state power to prevent abuse and usurpation of power.

“It is evident that the CCP does not embody a constitutional system,” said Mr. Wang. “That is why we advocate for dismantling the CCP and rebuilding the republic. We aim to establish a genuinely republican form of government.”

Before the Republic of China was established in 1911, the ideas of constitutionalism existed in the late Qing dynasty, according to Mr. Wang. The Qing dynasty did not evolve into a constitutional monarchy, but the ideas of constitutionalism carried on to the republic later.

Constitutionalism in the Past

Chinese political commentator Zheng Xuguang said on the show that the Republic of China was established based on movements for constitutionalism at the end of the Qing dynasty. Exiled constitutionalists at that time, such as Liang Qichao, proposed a constitutional monarchy based on the UK.

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The 1911 Revolution overthrew the monarchy and established the Republic of China, moving China closer to becoming a constitutional republic. However, the Soviet Union and Japan soon supported internal factions within the newly formed republic to divide the country, leading to an era of conflict and civil war. Various reformist and constitutionalist factions were at odds with each other at the time.

Mr. Zheng pointed out that near the end of the Qing dynasty, the hard-line monarchists were weak, while the constitutionalists were gaining significant power. All the regional forces under the monarchy supported constitutionalism, as well as all the well-educated bourgeois.

Destruction of Constitutionalism by the CCP

Under Gen. Chiang Kai-shek, the Republic of China was unified under the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang. However, Gen. Chiang continued to battle the communist insurgents while fighting against a Japanese invasion during WWII. He resisted both the communists backed by the Soviet Union and the Japanese.

During this time, China evolved into a Kuomintang party state, and after the CCP took over mainland China, Gen. Chiang retreated to Taiwan and became the President of the Republic of China. His conduct as president remains highly controversial in Taiwan due to his authoritarian rule and suppression of the Taiwanese independence movement.

Mr. Zheng criticized the Kuomintang’s party-state system as unsustainable because it combined military and constitutional governance. After the civil war with the CCP, the Kuomintang used broad emergency power in Taiwan to suppress the opposition. This only ended in the late 1980s when former President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan allowed for true constitutionalism.

“Now, Taiwan’s constitutional system can be said to be the best in Asia,” he said. “Taiwan is a democratic country based on constitutionalism, making it almost a perfect model [for a post-CCP China].”

CCP’s Inevitable Collapse

Mr. Zheng believes that the CCP’s communist and socialist agendas cannot work and are doomed to collapse one day.

“Just like all the communist countries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, all of them [collapsed],” he said. “So, the restoration of the republic [in China] will have to happen. It is the pursuit of freedom, democracy, and constitutionalism by generation after generation of thinkers and leaders in modern China since the constitutional movement at the end of the Qing dynasty. This path needs to be restored, and I have great confidence in it.”

The discussion on “Pinnacle View” highlighted the historical context and the aspirations of those advocating for the return to constitutionalism in China. From the late Qing dynasty to the Republic of China, there was a relay of constitutionalist movements, but the path towards true constitutionalism was interrupted by various internal and external factors. However, the two advocates expressed optimism about the future, believing that the collapse of the CCP is inevitable and that only freedom, democracy, and constitutional governance are the way forward for China.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.