The International Development of ChinaSun, Yat-sen
History
The International Development of China
Sun, Yat-sen
China -- Economic conditions -- 1912-1949; Railroads -- China
The Chinese are a stagnant race. From time immemorial a man is praised
for staying at home and caring for his immediate surroundings only.
Laotse--a contemporary of Confucius--says: "The good people are those
who live in countries so near to each other that they can hear each
other's cock crow and dog bark and yet they never have had intercourse
with each other during their lifetime." This is often quoted as the
Golden Age of the Chinese people. But in modern civilization the
condition is entirely changed. Moving about occupies a great part of
a man's life time. It is the movement of man that makes civilization
progress. China, in order to catch up with modern civilization, must
move. And the movement of the individual forms an important part of the
national activity. A man must move whenever and wherever he pleases
with ease and rapidity. However, China, at present, lacks the means
of facility for individual movement, for all the old great highways
were ruined and have disappeared, and the automobile has not yet been
introduced into the interior of the country. The motor car, a recent
invention, is a necessity for rapid movement. If we wish to move
quickly and do more work, we must adopt the motor car as a vehicle. But
before we can use the motor car, we have to build our roads. In the
preliminary part of this International Development Scheme, I proposed
to construct one million miles of roads. These should be apportioned
according to the ratio of population in each district for construction.
In the eighteen provinces of China Proper, there are nearly 2,000
hsiens. If all parts of China are to adopt the hsien administration,
there will be nearly 4,000 hsiens in all. Thus the construction of
roads for each hsien will be on an average of 250 miles. But some
of the hsiens have more people and some have less. If we divide the
million miles of roads by the four hundred million people, we shall
have one mile to every four hundred. For four hundred people to build
one mile of road is not a very difficult task to accomplish. If my
scheme of making road-building as a condition for granting local
autonomy is adopted by the nation, we shall see one million miles of
road built in a very short time as if by a magic wand.
As soon as the people of China decide to build roads, this
International Development Organization can begin to put up factories
for manufacturing motor cars. First start on a small scale and
gradually expand the plants to build more and more until they are
sufficient to supply the needs of the four hundred million people. The
cars should be manufactured to suit different purposes, such as the
farmer's car, the artisan's car, the business man's car, the tourist's
car, the truck car, etc. All these cars, if turned out on a large
scale, can be made much cheaper than at present, so that everybody who
wishes it, may have one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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