Today marks the 100th anniversary of the revolution led by Sun Yat-sen to overthrow the Qing dynasty and establish the first democratic republic in Asia. This should be a great opportunity to unify Chinese worldwide as Sun and the revolution are revered by Chinese from different backgrounds. There are statues and streets named after him in Taipei and Tianjin, Chiayi and Jiangmen.
Instead, the celebration of this momentous event has been shaped by politics, ideology and other social considerations. The government on each side of the Taiwan Strait is narrating the revolution in a way that favours them.
Beijing emphasises only one of Sun's famous Three Principles of the People - nationalism (minzu zhuyi). It does not mention livelihood (minsheng zhuyi) or democracy (minquan zhuyi). In Taiwan, the Kuomintang-led government is celebrating the anniversary with an eye on the presidential election in January. In Hong Kong and Macau, the anniversary is being celebrated in a more neutral way, allowing history to be presented as it was. These two cities have been able to capture the spirit of the revolution and pay due respect to its heroes. The exhibitions, plays and other events in both cities show that Sun's thinking remains relevant in China today.
His understanding of livelihood made him a social democrat. He saw the industrial and technological advances of Europe and the US and said China should learn from them - as it has done with great success. But he also saw their wide wealth gap, deep social inequalities and the exploitation of working people by the business class; he advocated active social welfare. In this respect, China has been too good a student of the United States and should follow Sun's advice to spend more on its poor, sick and elderly.
His theory of democracy included both the Western idea of checks and balances, with three separate branches of government, and two elements from Chinese tradition - an Examination Yuan and a Control Yuan. These are designed to ensure the fairness of the civil service exam and attack corruption in the public service, an issue as pressing today as it was in his time.
Many mainlanders would like to see such a system in today's China, rife with corruption. That is why Beijing has not allowed Sun's ideas to be promoted.
It has discouraged or banned unofficial events related to Sun, like an inter-university debate hosted by the Beijing Institute of Technology in April. The city's Communist Youth League reportedly opposed the event and had it banned.
