Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition News and Article Release Issue Number: A233-O58
中国民主运动海外联席会议新闻与文章发布号：A233-O58
Release Date: October 1, 2006
发布日：2006年10月1日
Topic: Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition Statement: Democracy in Taiwan vs. Democracy in Mainland China
标题：台湾民主与大陆民主 -- 中国民主运动海外联席会议公告
Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
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Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition Statement:
Democracy in Taiwan vs. Democracy in Mainland China
In the last 20 years, the political, economical, social, and cultural development in Taiwan has been quite remarkable. In particular, the political democratization of Taiwan can provide a model for the democratization of China for the future. The experiences and lessons Taiwan accumulated have great spiritual value. For this reason, those people who are concerned about the Chinese democracy movement both inside and outside of China have been very concerned about the changes in Taiwan - they have been paying close attention to every event that happens in the political, economical, social, and cultural domains in Taiwan. During the Frankfurt meeting of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, the meeting attendees from the European countries have reached the following consensus.
1. The Republic of China is an independent political entity that has been in existence and has been generally recognized internationally as well. Since the last half century, due to land reforms, education reforms, the fostering of small and medium sized business enterprises and the economical take-off, up until the end of a ban on political parties and the beginnings of a free press, Taiwan has become one of the "four dragons" of Asia. The ongoing economic model of Taiwan has been one of the world economic models. The democracy that has been on paper since World War II has finally been realized. Every step of development solidifies the wisdom and decades of strife of the Taiwanese. The diplomatic block implemented by the Beijing Government towards the Republic of China is only a formality. Beijing could not block the will to strive and the spirit of creativity, nor the continued development of Taiwanese society. Also, exactly through the existence of Taiwan, the anti-human nature of the policies of the Beijing government in the political, economic, social and cultural fields appear as clumpy and dwarfed in comparison. However, via media control, the Beijing government stirs up nationalism in the Mainlanders in an effort to threaten and obstruct the further development of the Republic of China. This effort is, on one hand, due to its jealousy of the democratic politics and economic openness of Taiwan. On the other hand, it is more of Beijing's own worry of the fact that if the Mainland people get to know of Taiwan's development in the last half century, they would take it as a model to break the dictatorship for democracy, thus ultimately threatening the selfish interests of those in power. The current Beijing government is more of an interest group that uses autocracy in an effort to extort flesh and blood of the people, than a simple autocracy itself.
2. The recent anti-corruption movement in Taiwan is a self-conscious citizens' movement of the Taiwan people. The purpose of this movement is in an effort to protect the democracy fruit produced after decades of strife by the Taiwan people. It is also the symbol of Taiwan moving further toward democracy and rule of law. To realize democratic politics in formality is only the first step towards a democratic society, and it only guarantees the people "government by the people" and "government for the people" in formality. But to turn "government by the people" into reality will take many kinds of citizens' movements to deepen the democratic politics into every layer of the country, to spread it to every regime of the society. Without this type of citizens' movement one by one, the democratic policies shall gradually decline and discolor. In the end, it would only leave the formality of democracy, and become a new autocracy. From this point of view, democratic politics is not an isolated event, but a very long developing process. It gets discolored due to careless, but shall be reborn after every citizen's movement.
3. As to the question of moving toward unification or keeping as separated as now across the Taiwan Strait, we cannot answer by simply using the traditional concepts from the Feudalistic Age. In the 21st century, in choosing unification or separation of two political entities, the only principle should be: which kind of mutual relationship would be the most beneficial to the political, economical, societal and cultural development across the Strait? For Europe, with various ethnic groups, various languages, various histories of different countries, it has finally, gradually, come to unification, from the then European Coal and Steel Community, to today's European Union and European Parliament, the Schengen Agreement which abolished border inspection between the Schengen countries, and the common currency of Europe (i.e. Euro), etc. In comparison, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait share the same language and the same culture. From a long-term outlook, unification should be beneficial to the development of both sides. Yet, unification should have a prerequisite - the establishment of a principle of homogeneity of politics on both sides. Without the peaceful revolution of Eastern Europe in 1989 that moved the East to political democratization, the unification of Europe could only be a desire, but not a reality. Democratic politics has become a world currency, yet Mainland China is still under its autocracy. Unification across the Taiwan Strait can now only be the good will of those who love peace and pursuing development, but not the reality. Without the base of democratic politics shared by both sides, so called "unification" can not be the kind of peaceful unification which is suitable for the development of both sides, but only becomes a European Middle-Age style military annex. From this perspective, we are strongly against any form of military threat to Taiwan by the Beijing government. To maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the minimum requirement of our democracy advocators both inside and outside China.
4. From the above, we conclude: Without the democratization of Mainland China, there is no security to Taiwan. Without democratization of Mainland China, there is no way to avoid political conflict and military conflict across the Taiwan Strait from the roots. Such conflicts are not only unfavorable to the development of both sides, but threaten the security of both sides as well. Should war break out, the hardworking accumulation of decades by the people of both sides of the Taiwan Strait could be destroyed in a moment. So the democratization of Mainland China is not just for the benefit of the people of the Mainland, but also for the people of Taiwan. From a point of common universal values, Taiwan received moral support and real assistance of the people of the world on the road of towards its democracy. Today, in an effort to promote their image and status on the world, to shake off the political and military encirclement and suppression by the Beijing government, the people of Taiwan need to continuously receive support from the people of the world who love peace. So to promote the democratization of Mainland China is also a duty for the people of Taiwan as well as the people of the world who love democracy. Promoting the social stability and development across the Taiwan Strait, is the mutual cause of both peoples across the Strait. This promotion is also the consistent stand of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition.
Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition
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中文版
Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition News and Article Release Issue Number: A233-O58
中国民主运动海外联席会议新闻与文章发布号：A233-O58
Release Date: October 1, 2006
发布日：2006年10月1日
Topic: Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition Statement: Democracy in Taiwan vs. Democracy in Mainland China
标题：台湾民主与大陆民主 -- 中国民主运动海外联席会议公告
Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
如有中文乱码问题，请访问:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2006/report2006-10/OCDCstatement061001TaiwanA233-O58.htm
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台湾民主与大陆民主
-- 中国民主运动海外联席会议公告
近二十年来，台湾岛上的政治、经济、社会与文化取得了可观的发展。尤其是政治民主化，为未来中国的民主化提供了一个发展模式。在政治民主化道路上所积累的经验与教训，是中国走向民主化的可贵精神财富。鉴于此，海内、外关怀中国民主运动的人士非常关心台湾岛上所发生的这些变迁，关注台湾政治、经济、社会与文化领域所发生的每一个事件。在中国民主运动海外联席会议的法兰克福会议上，来自欧洲各国的与会者得到如下共识。
一、中华民国作为一个事实存在、受到国际公认的独立政治实体。半个世纪来，从当年的土地改革、教育改革、扶植中小型企业、经济起飞，直到开放党禁、报禁，台湾成为受世人瞩目的亚洲四小龙之一。台湾的外向型经济模式成为世界上外向型经济的典范之一。从战后实施的纸面上的民主，最终实现了实质上的民主政治。这每一步发展，都凝聚了台湾民众的智慧与几十年的奋斗。尽管北京政府对中华民国实施外交封锁，但封锁的只是形式上的外交，却无法封锁台湾人民的奋斗毅力与创造精神，更无法抑制台湾社会的不断发展。而且正因为有一个台湾的存在，北京政府的政治、经济、社会与文化的非人性政策更显得相形见拙。北京政府通过舆论封锁，煽动大陆民众的民族主义情绪，以威胁与阻拦中华民国的进一步发展。既是出于对台湾民主政治和经济开放的嫉妒，更是担心大陆民众了解台湾岛上的发展真相后，会以台湾这半个多世纪的发展为楷模，突破专制，走向民主，从而从根本上威胁到北京当政者的私利。北京政府与其说是一个专制政权，毋宁说是以专制为手段、靠搜刮中国人民的民脂民膏的利益集团。
二、近日台湾岛上发生的反腐败运动，是台湾民众一种自觉的公民运动。旨在保护经过台湾人民几十年奋斗所获得的民主成果，同时也是台湾走向进一步民主与法制的标志。实现形式上的民主政治，只是走向民主政治的第一步，只是在形式上保证了人民有可能通过政治渠道来实现“民治”与“民享”。但这种“可能”是否能够成为“现实”，就需要通过一次次公民运动，将这样的民主运动不断地向前推进，将民主政治深入到国家的各个层面，广泛到社会的各个领域。如果没有这样一次次的公民运动，民主政治就会逐步式微，逐步变色，最后只留有民主的形式，而成为民主形式下新的专制。从这点来说，民主政治不是一个孤立的事件，而是一个漫长的发展过程。它在不经意中逐步变色，然后又在一场场公民运动中获得再生。
三、海峡两岸走向统一还是保持分裂，不能简单地用封建时代的传统观念来解答。在21世纪的今天，两个国家或政体是统一还是分离，是怎样统一或怎样分离，唯一的准则就是：以什么样的双边关系才更有利于海峡两岸的政治、经济、社会与文化发展。欧洲各国不同的民族，不同的语言，不同的历史，但最后都逐步地走向统一。从当年的煤钢联合体，发展到今天的欧盟与欧洲议会，发展到今天取消边境检查的神根条约，实现了欧洲共同货币（欧元）等。从这点来说，海峡两岸还有共同的语言和文化基础，从长远来说，统一应当有利于双方的发展。但统一又是有前提的，统一必须建立在双方政治上的同质原则之上。没有1989年东欧的那场和平革命，使东欧也走向政治民主，则欧洲统一只能成为一种愿望，而不可能成为现实。民主政治已经成为世界潮流，所以在中国大陆还处于专制的环境下，两岸统一也只能成为两岸爱好和平、追求发展的人们的良好愿望，但无法成为现实。没有两岸的民主政治为基础，所谓的“统一”不可能是一种有利双方发展的和平统一，而只能成为一场欧洲中世纪式的武力兼并。从这个意义上来说，我们竭力反对北京政府对台湾任何形式的武力威胁，维持台湾海峡的和平与稳定，是我们海内外民运人士的最低要求。
四、从上述阐述也可以看到：大陆不民主，台湾不安全。没有大陆的民主化，就无法从根本上避免海峡两岸的政治冲突与军事冲突。这不仅不利于双方的发展，甚至威胁到双方的安全。万一战争爆发，将使海峡两岸几十年人民的辛勤积累毁于一旦。所以大陆的民主化，不仅出于大陆人民的利益，同时也是台湾人民的利益所在。从普世价值观来说，在台湾走向民主的道路上，也曾得到世界上所有追求民主的人们道义上的支持和实质上的支援。今天台湾人们要提升自己在世界上的形象与地位，要摆脱北京政府的政治与军事围剿，也同样需要继续得到全世界爱好和平人们的支持。所以促进大陆民主化，也同样是包括台湾人民的全世界所有爱好民主的人们的一项义不容辞的义务。促进台湾海峡两岸的社会稳定与发展，是海峡两岸人民的共同事业。这也是中国民主运动海外联席会议的一贯立场。
中国民主运动海外联席会议
2006年10月1日
农历丙戍年八月初十（中秋前夕）
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