WILL U.S.

DEMOCRACY AND CHINESE HARMONY BE

HARMONIOUS IN 21ST CENTURY

WILL U.S. DEMOCRACY AND CHINESE HARMONY BE HARMONIOUS IN 21ST

CENTURY?
WWW.WORLDHARMONYORG.NET

BY FRANCIS C. W. FUNG, PH.D.

Can the promotion of democracy, as advocated by President Bush and current

presidential front runners, succeed again in the 21st Century? Must all developing nations
emulate the American democracy model along the path to modernity? United calls for the
return of the U.S.A. to Cold War glory are sounded regularly with seemingly no thought
given to the negative implications associated with this type of policy shift. The politics of
one era rarely suit the next with any accuracy, so why would the 21st and 20th century be
any different? The major trading countries of the 21st Century will be more in tune with
win-win mutual developments as opposed to the old concept of zero sum games. In very
convincing terms, recent foreign policy essays appearing in Foreign Affairs, by Barack
Obama, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards all repeated democracy
diplomacy as the center piece of renewed U.S. leadership for the 21st Century.

Senator Obama in “Renewing American Leadership”, first proposed power diplomacy

backed by a strong military with repeated use of pressure to achieve U.S. leadership,
stating: “I will build a 21st Century military and a 21st Century partnerships as strong as
the anticommunist alliance that won the Cold War to stay on the offense everywhere from
Djibouti to Kandahar”. In reality the higher goal of the modern world today is
development and not unilateral confrontations. It is a world consensus that may have
escaped our politicians because we are still basking in the glory of the Cold War victory.
The lesson we must learn from the Cold War is forgiveness, not that our power to win in
that period signifies our greatness. After half a century of senseless name-calling we must
have the magnanimity to forgive our old adversaries and move on to the 21st Century of
Harmony and win-win mutual development.

In Governor Romney’s article, we are presented with the powerful thesis of “Rising to a
New Generation of Global Challenges” when we in reality have no powerful opponents
beyond our own fear. Again, he invokes the glory of winning the Cold War through
democracy diplomacy. According to Romney “In the aftermath of World War II and with
coming of the Cold War, members of “the Greatest Generation” united America and the
free world around shared values and actions that changed history." Romney believes that
“our current generation can match the courage, dedication, and vision of the greatest
generation.” In conclusion he states unequivocally that “We are a unique nation, and there
is no substitute for our leadership.”

It is a natural tendency among great nations, in times of trouble, to search the annals of
their own history to influence current policies. If the U.S.A. is to reestablish hostile
relations with powerful nations, this will serve only to bolster anti-American forces
around the world and galvanize regimes whose fundamental premise relies on America
pursuing this course of action. It is time for America to see that it is Harmony that lies at
the foundation of all new world leadership today. It is Harmony that will bring America
back in line with major forces around the world.

Mayor Giuliani in “Toward a Realistic Peace” outlined a policy of defending civilization

and defeating terrorists by making the international system work. According to the article
“the next U.S. president will face three key foreign policy challenges. First and foremost,
will be to set a course for victory in the terrorists’ war on global order. The second will be
to strengthen the international system that the terrorists seek to destroy. The third will be
to extend the benefits of the international system in an ever widening arc of security and
stability across the globe. The most effective means for achieving these goals are building
a stronger defense, developing a determined diplomacy, and expanding our economic and
cultural influence... To this end, the Voice of America program must be significantly
strengthened and broadened. Its surrogate stations, such as Radio Free Europe and Radio
Liberty, which were so effective at inspiring grass-roots dissidents during the Cold War,
must be expanded as well.”

In “Reengaging with the World-A Return to Moral Leadership” Senator Edwards asserted
that “the United States today needs to reclaim the moral high ground that defined our
foreign policy for much of the last Century.” Little are most Americans aware, because of
our own closed mindedness, the world is not waiting for us to return to our past moral
high ground. The world of the 21st Century is moving towards a higher common value of
harmony renaissance. World harmony will propagate through resonance with just
commerce and win-win mutual development. There will be no need for sponsorship from
the great power of democracy as in the Cold War era. While, according to Senator
Edwards “we must lead the world by demonstrating the power of our ideals, not by
stoking fear about those who do not share them.” Senator Edwards is dead right to point
out the failure of the Bush democracy diplomacy in Iraq but he fails to acknowledge the
necessity of perceiving new ideals prevalent throughout the world as the standard to
which our policies and bias must adapt.

President Bush has promoted Democracy as the cornerstone of his foreign policy. This is
amply addressed in his second inaugural speech and the 2006 National Security Strategy.
Failing to prove the presence of Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction he went on to justify
the occupation as a victory for democracy. In doing so Bush commited a double jeopardy
that further discredited him in front of the world. In reality, democracy is nowhere near
being established, let alone secured in Iraq or the Middle East.

But the failure of Bush’s Middle East democracy diplomacy does not obscure the
successful propagation of democracy in the last century. In fact, 20th century democracy
has seen great success as the preferred means of popular sovereignty governance, but not
as a monolithic structure without variation. It is the variety with which democracy is
developed and carried out that has infinitely deepened the appeal to developing nations.
The fact that varied forms of democracy can co-exist peacefully draws nations and people
in without stirring thoughts of Imperialism. This generic definition of democracy allows
the majority of newly independent countries of the world can claim their own brand of
democracy, which is different from the U.S. system.

In a recent Foreign Affairs article titled “Democracy without America: The Spontaneous
Spread of Freedom” Michael Mandelbaum, of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies, elucidated clearly that the “time for creating the social conditions
conducive to liberty is, at a minimum, a generation. Not only the apparatus of liberty take
time to develop, it must be developed independently and domestically; it cannot be sent
from elsewhere and implanted, ready made.” ----“The age of empire has ended. Nowhere
are people eager, or even willing, to be ruled by foreigners, a point the U.S. encounter
with Iraq has illustrated all too vividly.” This line of contemporary thinking advocating
the spread of common ideals as well as democracy is well documented in foreign affairs
studies and is also routinely presented by the present author.

Twenty years ago the present author organized world peace painting exhibitions in Hong
Kong and Taiwan out of personal interest. In the process, we discovered two common
truisms about values that are very much applicable to the 21st Century. Trustworthiness
and win-win commerce are essential for world peace. Encouraged by this simple
discovery, our banner calligraphy for our exhibition exclaimed “The Grand Era of Peace
and Harmony will Surely Come.” According to Mandelbaum, “The institutions, skills,
and values needed to operate a free market economy are those that, in the political sphere,
constitute democracy.” ---- “Perhaps most important, the free market generates the
organizations and groups independent of the government—businesses, trade unions,
professional associations, clubs, and the like—that are known collectively as civil society,
which is itself indispensable to a democratic political system.”

History has also shown that the ideal of freedom and popular sovereignty is best spread
by commerce when the necessary rise in each nation’s education and living standards
make conditions ready. It must take hold internally in the fertile ground of the gradually
maturing civil society.

Recent transformations to popular sovereignty governance systems in the Far East

include the gradual self-awakening of the socialist system of China. The political reform
that followed the economic success in China may result in a socialist-democracy with
Chinese characteristics, which is very promising. This developing trend in China can also
be called a socialist system with Chinese harmony, which integrates state economy and
market economy.

The system of government that will inevitably be most suited to a country is that which is
harmonious with its own specific cultural, historical and other varied idiosyncrasies that
no imported system can possibly incorporate. The Chinese term for harmony is composed
of “Freedom of Speech and Contentment to All” demonstrating the wisdom inherent in
the Chinese language handed down from generation to generation.

The current use of military force and “power diplomacy” to promote U.S. values is
backfiring. The Iraq occupation debacle makes the developing world suspicious of
American motives, a fact nobody can deny. Senior statesmen purport to be blind to this
growing sentiment in order to entrench a standard of complacency already well
established throughout the population. American diplomatic relations with the majority of
the world today are at their lowest in the last 50 years. The revival of bygone Cold War
propaganda is bound to fail as it is out of touch with the needs of most of the developing
world for growth.

The ideology of democracy is well understood and considered necessary to the modern
world, but the concept is insufficient if it is not imbued with the notion of harmony.
Harmony Renaissance is the next phase of a human breakthrough that will unleash
creativity beyond that which even the European Renaissance bore out. Religious strife,
unilateral confrontation and egocentric philosophies will dissipate as the trend towards
harmony becomes more influential and the innumerable possibilities of this potentiality
are brought to bare.

In my book ‘China’s Harmony Renaissance: What the World Must Know” I detailed the
thesis that the three main pillars of human civilization since ancient times are Middle
Eastern religions, European democracy and Chinese harmony. Their spread has the most
profound influence on human culture and will continue until time immemorial. In
previous essays entitled “Harmony Propagates by Resonance”, “Universal Wave Theory
and Harmony Consensus”, and “Harmony Universal World Common Heritage” I
proposed that harmony propagates by resonance without the need of states unduly
brandishing their soft power.

Because resonance is nature’s preferred way of propagation, to independently seek

resonance in harmony will become simple human nature in the modern era. Our own lack
of awareness has allowed past tradition, religion, and democracy to be corrupted by
human institutions and state sponsorship. The seed of the harmony renaissance sits within
each individual waiting to spring to life with inner peace and a peace with nature. With
today’s universal awareness, harmony can escape human corruption because unity in
diversity is accepted as an essential aspect of this global community in which we live.
The beauty of harmony is its simplicity. Its universality. That is why it does not need state
sponsorship, although like any facet of human culture, education helps its resonance.

History has shown religion and democracy were regularly promoted by institutions and
state sponsorships. Therein lies the dilemma of past religion and democracy extremism.
Both religion and democracy will need harmony to soften their harshness and extremism
that have been wrought by institutions and state sponsorship. Countless wars have been
fought over religion and democracy in the past and continue today. As demonstrated by
history, harmony can propagate in its most effective manner with little interference
eventually becoming a common universal value.

Inherent in harmony is its renunciation of violence. History has no record of wars over
harmony. The development of mutually beneficial trade has evinced the unlikelihood of
war as an outcome from harmony propagation. Espousing tolerance, acceptance, mutual
respect, equity, humility and forgiveness as values for universal conflict resolution,
harmony will be the ultimate solution bringing lasting peace and unity to the unyielding
diversity of human cultures.

In the 21st Century, harmony will propagate through resonance with the spread of
commerce and mutual development like waves on the surface of the water. Democracy
will be further carried by the wave of harmony like fish in water. For democracy to take
hold in any nation a civil society with integrated market economy is a prerequisite.
Without the necessary societal order and harmony consensus, democracy will wither. A
return to global cultural values of tolerance, mutual acceptance, respect, equity, humility
and forgiveness through Harmony Renaissance will fertilize all national soil for
democracy to grow even in the most obstinate ground.

Unilateralism and arrogance, as practiced primarily by the U.S. today, creates great
obstacles for international democracy. Thus harmony renaissance must pave the ground
for the advancement of international democracy. Brining harmony together with
democracy under one banner striving to attain the common goal of prosperity and peace
for all nations, whether developed or developing is the road to success in the future. May
harmony prevail in the world!