An Alternative Vision of China, Past and Future

An appreciation of Chen Jiongming.

China has had a tumultuous and sad history over the last couple of centuries. There was humiliation at the hands of colonial powers, then partial occupation by Japan, followed by Communist revolution, civil war, famine, cultural revolution, and finally its re-adoption of capitalism and rise to immense commercial power, under an autocratic political system. One ray of hope was the first republic, founded in 1912 as the Qing dynasty was overthrown. This was inspired by and initially run by Sun Yat Sen, though he soon bowed out in favor of the warlord Yuan Shikai. Sadly, this republic was just a brief phase in a larger warlord period where competing armies all over China tried to out-maneuver the others. Ultimately, Sun Yat Sen's "nationalist" movement came back to power after his death in 1926 under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, who turned out to be little more than another warlord after jettisoning the major principle of democracy from the "Nationalist" platform. 

Well, one leader during this time who paid a bit more attention to the political foundations of China's future was Chen Jiongming. He was part of the great student movement of progressive ideas in the early 1900's, exemplified by the May Fourth movement, the massive student-led revulsion at the sell-outs of China's interests by the Versailles treaty ending World War 1. He was elected to the Guangdong provincial assembly in 1909, and after one abortive attempt at revolution in service to the coming republic, was elected commander of and army based in Hong Kong and aimed to taking over Guangdong province. This he finally did successfully in late 1911. He eventually became the local governor, where he led a brilliant administration devoted to restoring the peace, building the economy, and putting progressive ideals into practice, such as women's political rights. 

After several reverses, particularly after Yuan Shikai clarified his intention to become emperor, Chen was put at the head of another army, which gained control over southern Fujian, next door to Guangdong, in 1918. The next four years would see him take over Guangdong again, and again put in place an efficient and progressive administration. Chen's main principle during this time was federalism, the idea that it would be best to nurture democracy and modernization in single provinces or small areas like Guangdong, rather than devoting all efforts, (as Sun Yat Sen was doing), to take over all of China. The warlord competition was one that seemed to corrupt its participants. When winning is the only goal, other principles get sacrificed, if there were any there to begin with. Few of the warlords had strong political ideals or any kind of progressive basis at all, other than winning. Already Yuan Shikai had shown himself to be afflicted by that virus, and Chiang Kai-shek would take the Nationalists more or less down the same road, after they had indeed conquered all of China and then faced the Japanese and Communists in succession.

Chen Jiongming

Chen was clearly going in a different direction, hoping that successful government and modernization in one area could lead more peacefully and gradually to the similar liberation of other areas. Rather than sacrificing all for power, he wanted to put good government first and stay on the military defensive while tending to an area that is perhaps the premier commercial area of China, which would later lead the way to the PRC's curious blend of capitalism and communism, and whose delta hosts Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou (aka Canton). 

The problem in China, in this and other epochs, is that there are few natural barriers that, in the parlance of biology, foster speciation in geographic isolation. It is too easy to invade other areas, and very difficult to differentiate, grow, and succeed before one's riches are plundered by someone else. The zero-sum logic of warlordism is rampant, and all the people can do is to wait for one of them to win, and hope the winner can be turned to more or less benevolent directions. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists were far from benevolent or competent when their turn came, and their system collapsed in the face of a true peasant revolution (finally, an understandable and broadly appealing political basis, however fleeting) led by Mao Zedong. But that regime turned out to be far, far from benevolent in its turn, and only much later turned its attention to making life better for the Chinese, who are now trapped in an economically growing autocracy, whose leaders are petrified that the people will someday turn on them and recover their natural rights.

It is interesting to note that the Tiananmen square incident happened just as Taiwan was, after a long authoritarian phase of its own, establishing truly functional democratic institutions. Deng Xiaoping, however, crushed the protesters and nascent liberalization in the PRC. Two paths were diverging. Each avoided chaos, but which was the better one?

Perhaps Sun Yat Sen was right to dismiss federalism as a pipe dream in China, given the long history and the political situation at the time. Perhaps it was either eat or be eaten, on this vast and bloody stage. But it is fascinating to consider that an alternate road was in the offing- one that promised far less bloodshed, far less suffering, and a far more civilized outcome.

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