Government out of touch with community
I refer to Patsy Leung's letter ('Radical democrats have misread the pulse of the community', March 25).
The democrats read the pulse of the community correctly with the budget. It is the government that regularly misreads public views, with unsatisfactory policies that occasion protests. Until Hong Kong has a more representative form of government, those sorts of protests will arise. However, spilling over into violence is counterproductive. This applies to the police as much as to protesters.
Ms Leung refers to Confucianism and the 'golden mean' in shaping Hong Kong society. A harmonious society is not achieved through silence and submission. It requires balance, the golden mean, to be observed by the rulers and the people. If the government was just, and representation balanced, there would be less need to protest. Unless the people communicate their grievances, the government will not be aware.
Once informed, officials should make corrections. Justice is a two-way street. There are ways of achieving 'harmonious society' that include expression and fulfilment of rights, rather than repression. Taoism is as influential in Hong Kong as Confucianism. Other Chinese philosophers are also well known, for example Mo-Tze, who espoused a doctrine of universal love 500 years before Jesus.
The doctrine of universal love therefore has a Chinese precedent, at least as ancient as Confucianism, a forerunner of the Christian doctrine of love, which is the golden thread running through the law of equity. These shared values are universal, common to all humanity, not just 'Western'. They all seek balance and equity in society.
The dualistic opposition of China and 'Chineseness' to 'the West' is artificial and often exploited cynically for political ends. Neither China nor the West are hermetically sealed. Since ancient times, there have been trans-Eurasian cross-pollination of thought, art, culture, food and language, driven by commerce and migrations, war, flood, famine, persecution - like today, but slower. Confucianism played a part in the Enlightenment. The modern liberal democracy that Chinese nationalists denounce as 'Western', and therefore supposedly inherently unsuited to China, contains Chinese DNA.
