The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu ILinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu I
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Sun, Yat-sen, 1866-1925. San min zhu yi
The internal program of his nationalism was one which seems to have been
influenced by the outlook developed by himself. His vigorous denunciation
of Utopian cosmopolitanism prevents his being considered an
internationalist. He had, on the occasion of the institution of the first
Republic, been in favor of the freedom of nations even when that freedom
might be exercised at the expense of the Chinese. The Republic might
conceivably have taken the attitude that it had fallen heir to the
overlordship enjoyed by the Manchu Empire, and consequently refused
representation to the Mongols, Manchus, Tibetans, and Mohammedans. It was,
however, called the Republic of Chung Hua (instead of the Republic of
Han), and a five-striped flag, representing its five constituent “races,”
was adopted. Sun Yat-sen later gave a graphic description of the
world-wide appeal of Woodrow Wilson’s principle of national
self-determination. He did not think that the principle, once enunciated,
could be recalled; and stated that the defeat of the minor and colonial
nations at the Versailles Conference, which drafted a very unjust treaty,
was an instance of the deceitfulness of the great powers.
His nationalism did not go so far as to permit his endorsing the entrance
of the People’s Republic of Outer Mongolia into the Soviet Union. This
doctrine of nationalism as a correlative of democratic national autonomy
was his second principle, that of democracy; his first principle, that of
race-nationalism, had other implications for the destiny of Mongolia. His
positive program of nationalism was dedicated, in its “political”
exercise, to the throwing-off of the imperialist bondage and the exercise
of the self-rule of the Chinese people.
It is only if one realizes that these three sub-principles of nationalism
were re-emphases of the three principles that their position in the theory
of the nationalist program becomes clear. Nationalism was to clear the way
for _min shêng_ by resisting the Western economic oppression of the
Chinese, and thus allowing the Chinese to enrich themselves. Nationalism
was to strike down the political oppression of imperialism by eradicating
the political holds of the West upon China, and thus allowing the Chinese
people to rule itself. So long as China was at the mercy of Western power,
any self-government that the Chinese might attempt would have to be
essayed at the sufferance of the aggressors. Finally, nationalism was to
reinforce itself by the application of race-nationalism to race-kinship;
China was not only to be self-ruling—it was to help the other nations of
Asia restore their autonomy and shield them with its tutelary benevolence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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