President Lee Teng-hui pointed out this afternoon that the world in general and all Chinese people in particular wish to see a prosperous, democratic mainland China.
The President made the remarks while meeting with a group of foreign scholars attending a symposium on mainland China's political and economic developments in the post-Deng Xiaoping era. Sponsored by the Mainland Affairs Council of the ROC Executive Yuan, the seminar was held at National Cheng Kung University in southern Taiwan.
President said that although mainland China has managed to improve its poverty and backwardness by adopting an open-door policy and implementing economic reforms nighteen years ago, yet economic reforms have made many problems that have long existed in mainland China's political and economic systems come to the surface. Those problems, he noted, include a rising crime rate, a collapsed social system, conflicts between the central and local governments, a widening gap between the rich and the poor, as well as bureaucratic corruption.
President Lee also told his guests that ideological insistence, coupled with fears of losing power, have prevented Beijing from adopting effective strategies to address the various problems arising from rapid social changes.
The President said his observation is that many of mainland China's current problems result from lagging social modernization and political democratization and that mainland China will have a bleak prospect if the communist regime fails to overhaul its political system, privatize bloated state enterprises, enhance the literacy rate and break the one-party dictatorship myth.
Looking into the future, the President reiterated, for the well-being of all Chinese, mainland China has no other choice but to actively promote social reforms and political democratization to resolve its problems and ensure sustainable development.
The foreign scholars--including Dr. Syed Shahid Husain, Dr. Kam Wing Chan, Dr. Thomas Heberer, Dr. Athar Hussain, Dr. Gary Klintworth, Mr. Wi Wang, Dr. Geng Xiao, Dr. Zhongmei Yang--were accompanied by Dr. Wu Shin-shin, dean of the Political Economy Institue of National Cheng Kung University, to the Office of the President for the meeting. Also present were Dr. Ding Mou-shih, secretary-general of the ROC National Security Council, and Mr. Stephen S.F. Chen, deputy secretary-general to the President.