Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue:A900-W581

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号:A900-W581

 

Release Date: November 15, 2015

发布日:2015年11月15日

 

Topic: Henry Kissinger’s Wrong Thinking -- Wei Jingsheng

标题:基辛格的错误思维 -- 魏京生

 

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

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Henry Kissinger’s Wrong Thinking

-- Wei Jingsheng

 

 

As an international political activist Henry Kissinger's thoughts are mainly of international relations.  Recently, a fellow of Harvard University, Mr. Yang Peng from China, gave some reviews of Kissinger's views that were quite pertinent.  But the review was not in deep enough, and seems to have had some mercy.  To be a visiting scholar in the land of Kissinger, it is understandable to be gentle and restrained when talking about him.  So, let me give some in-depth criticism of Henry Kissinger's thoughts that would be very important to both Chinese and Americans.

 

In the book ("World Order") he recently published, Henry Kissinger explained his vision from his diplomatic experience and reflection accumulated in the past several decades.  That vision was really in the same track, or say carved from the same mold, as the "Asian Values" of Jiang Zemin (of China) and Lee Kuan Yew (of Singapore).  Both assume that the diplomatic thought or the traditional way of thinking between the Westerners and the Chinese people is not the same.

 

That theory says that Westerners use legal thinking, e.g. maintaining the relationship between countries according to the law, and have so since the Peace Treaties of Westphalia in the seventeenth century.  The Chinese people are used to thinking in accordance with the law of the jungle, only acknowledging the relationship between the sovereign state and tributary states.  According to Mr. Kissinger's relatively euphemistic way of expression, the law of jungle is said to be thinking in terms of historical development.  Over all, the principles of the East and West are different, which is a special concept of Asian Values.

 

Is it really true historically?  Mr. Yang Peng politely gives an example of the opposite.  In China during the sixth century BC, there was the "Big Conference to Cease the Wars" after the war between the countries of Jin and Chu.  The "Big Conference to Cease the Wars" (included more than one dozen countries and) was the first international peace treaties in the world.  It maintained more than one hundred years of peace, in a total area that was much bigger than the German-speaking area.  That was more than two thousand years earlier than the Peace Treaties of Westphalia that Kissinger was so proud of.

 

Is it true that in the more than two thousand years following this "Big Conference", China only had the relationship between the sovereign state and tributary states, as stated by Kissinger?  I have to say Mr. Kissinger does not read books and makes blind comments without knowing the history.  Besides the relationship between China and its tributary states, treaty relationships between China and its neighboring countries have continued to exist for more than two thousand years.  The Chinese who were educated by the Chinese Communist Party remember the famous peace treaty between the Tang Dynasty and Tibet, which was carved onto 3 stones publicly erected in three locations include the Chinese capital of the Tang Dynasty Chang'an and the Tibetan capital Lhasa.  The treaty stone in Lhasa (Lhasa Doring) has survived till this day, and has been available for all the public to view freely all the time, without restriction.  Could the public view your treaty written on the parchment so freely? 

 

Now let us look at the history of European thought according to Henry Kissinger again.  Let us not talk about the relative peace maintained by the religious authorities during the Medieval ages.  Was Europe in peace after the Peace Treaty of Westphalia?  The wars within Germany stopped.  However, the law of the jungle was still in force among other countries.  There were several wars that broke out between Germany and other countries.  Even the two world wars in the last century were initiated by the Germans.  Where was the thinking of any treaty law?  To the best it was equal to the Chinese.  Human nature is the same.  There is no such thing as so-called "Special Values."

 

The first to affect peace among nations is the historical development.  Affected by the domestic ups and downs, the balance of power among nations will be broken.  More powerful countries will have the motivation to breach the peace, which is most of the reason for war.  The Peace Treaty of Westphalia came out because everyone was exhausted from the wars, and with their nations in recession they had to withdraw the motives of aggression.  Laws and treaties were just excuses.

 

The reason that the "Big Conference to Cease the Wars" was successful in China more than 2,600 years ago is because the situation was the same as what is in the world since the last century.  Like today, it produced overlords, so-called "international police" to maintain order.  That is, with relatively fair refereeing and punitive measures, they stop wars that could occur anywhere.  The so-called "international law" of today is just like that.  Instead of being real, it depends on the willingness of the law enforcers to take responsibility.  As a matter of fact, the United Nations is just a decoration, without practical significance itself.

 

This is just like other laws around us -- if there are no punitive measures and law enforcers, it really would be an unknown number of how many people would abide by the law.  If offenders go unpunished and even awarded with the benefits, I am afraid that most people would not comply with the law.  The current situation in China is an example.  And now the international society is also developing toward this direction.  When weak people cheer the USA's decline, they have forgotten what kind of catastrophe the village will suffer when it lacks a sherrif.

 

So where did the rising mind of aggression of the current Chinese rulers come from?  That is exactly the common feature of all tyranny.  Where did the tyrannical thinking of the Chinese Communist Party come from?  It exactly came from you in the West.  It is not the thinking of the Chinese traditional legal treaty.

 

Put in this way, the traditional thinking of China weights more on laws and treaties, while the traditional Western thinking weights more on the law of the jungle.  It was only in modern times that the situation has reversed, when the law of the jungle is applied by the Chinese Communist Party in China, while most Western countries are more likely following the new ideas of the law and treaties.

 

Why did the West change its traditional thinking?  That is because the people of the democratic states like peace, and are accustomed to thinking in accordance with the law and treaties.  So they often ended up make a mistake, thinking that other people were just like themselves, without understanding that other people might be different.  In particular, they do not understand that the thinking of the tyrants is not to comply with the law and treaties, but to bully with the law of the jungle.

 

The old friends of the Chinese Communist Party such as Henry Kissinger argued loudly for these tyrants: they said that they want to "Tao Guang Yang Hui" -- to keep a low profile.  Americans have failed to understand the real meaning of this famous Chinese idiom, thinking it means to put the weapons in the warehouse and to release the warhorses into the mountains.  In fact, the real meaning of this idiom is: to hide arrows in the pouch pretending peace and wait until the right time to kill the enemy.

 

This is the fundamental difference of the two thinking ways.  Right now, Xi Jinping's hand is reaching that poisoned arrow in his pouch, eagering to give a try to the neighboring countries.  Indeed, he cannot wait much longer.  It is not that he cannot wait due to the international environment, but due to the plight inside of China.  If there were no international police force willing to take responsibility for peace, the peace would already have disappeared.

 

By now, we should already know who these big international liars are helping by advocating appeasement.  If they really are sober minded scholars, then they are betraying their own people for personal gain.  Of course, another tradition of modern American politics is: it is the better traitors who are admired.  That tradition makes these scholars, who have lied to the American people, become fashionable.

 

 

To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's related commentary, please visit:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2015/WeiJS151112onKissingerHwrong.mp3

 

(Written on and recorded on November 12, 2015.  Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia.)

 

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中文版

 

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue:A900-W581

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号:A900-W581

 

Release Date: November 15, 2015

发布日:2015年11月15日

 

Topic: Kissinger's Wrong Thinking -- Wei Jingsheng

标题:基辛格的错误思维 -- 魏京生

 

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准(英文在前,中文在后)

 

如有中文乱码问题,请与我们联系或访问:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2015/report2015-11/WeiJS151115onKissingerHwrongA900-W581.htm

 

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基辛格的错误思维

-- 魏京生

 

 

基辛格作为国际政治活动家,他的思想主要是国际关系方面的思维。最近哈佛大学的中国访问学者杨鹏先生对基辛格的观点进行了一番点评,比较中肯。但不够深入,而且似乎有些手下留情。在基辛格的地盘上做访问学者,积口德是可以理解的。那就让我把基辛格的思维再深入一些批评吧。这对我们中国人和美国人都很重要。

 

基辛格最近出书阐述了他积几十年外交经验和思考,得出的一套理论。那其实和江泽民、李光耀的亚洲独特价值观是一个思路,或者说一个模子里刻出来的。也就是说他们白人和咱们中国人的外交思想,或者说传统思维方式不一样。

 

那个理论说他们白人从十七世纪的威斯特伐利亚条约开始,就是法律思维,按照法律来维护国家间的关系。而中国人是按照丛林法则来思维,只懂得宗主国和朝贡国之间的关系。按照基辛格先生比较委婉的说法,丛林法则被称呼为历史流变的思维方式。总之是东西方的原则不同,亚洲特殊价值观的翻版。

 

历史果然如此吗?杨鹏先生委婉地给出了一个相反的例证。公元前六世纪晋楚之战后的“弭兵大会”,就是世界上最早的国际和平条约。它维持了一百多年的和平,范围也比德语区大得多。它比基辛格得意洋洋的威斯特伐利亚条约早了两千多年。

 

之后的两千多年里,中国就只有基辛格所说的朝贡关系吗?不得不说基辛格先生不读书,不懂历史在瞎评论。中国除了和附属国之间的朝贡关系,和周边国家的条约关系一直存在了两千多年。受共产党教育的中国人都记得那个著名的唐朝和吐蕃的和约。那被刻成石碑公开树立在长安和拉萨等三地。拉萨的条约石碑至今尚存,所有的公众可自由浏览,不受限制。你那个写在羊皮纸上的条约,是公众可以自由浏览的吗?

 

再看看基辛格的欧洲思维的历史。中世纪靠宗教的权威维持的相对和平就不说了。威斯特伐利亚条约之后的欧洲是和平的吗?德国人之间的战争停止了,其它国家之间仍然是丛林法则,德国也和其它国家发生了数次战争。直到上个世纪的两次世界大战,都是德国人发起的。哪里有什么条约法律的思维呢?至少和中国人彼此彼此。人性是相同的,没有什么特殊价值观。

 

影响国家间和平的,首先就是历史流变。受国内盛衰的影响,国家间的力量平衡会被打破。于是强国就产生了破坏和平的动机,这是战争的大多数原因。威斯特伐利亚条约是因为大家都打不动了,国土一片萧条而不得不取消了侵略的动机。法律和条约只是个理由而已。

 

两千六百多年前的“弭兵大会”之所以成功,和上世纪至今的情况相同。那是因为产生了霸主,有了维持秩序的所谓“国际警察”。也就是有了相对公平的裁判和惩罚措施,随处发生的战争才受到了遏止。所谓的国际法也不过如此而已,并不是真正的法律。它要看执法者愿意不愿意承担责任。联合国其实就是个摆设,它本身没有实际意义。

 

和我们身边的法律一样,如果没有惩罚的措施和执法者,有多少人遵守法律,那确实是个未知数。 如果违法者不受惩罚而且得到了好处,恐怕绝大多数人都不会遵守那个法律。现在中国的情况就是如此。现在国际间的情况也正在向这个方向发展。弱者们在欢呼美国日渐衰落的同时,忘记了没有警察的乡村是什么样的灾难。

 

现在中国的统治者们日渐上升的侵略心,是从哪儿来的?那正是所有专制暴政的共同特征。中国的共产主义暴政思维是从哪儿来的?正是从你们西方传来的,而不是中国传统的法律条约思维。

 

或者说,中国的传统思维更重法律和条约,而西方的传统思维更看重丛林法则。只是到了近代,才被颠倒过来。中国共产党使用的是西方的丛林法则,西方的大多数国家则更遵循法律条约的新思想。

 

为什么西方改变了自己的传统思维?是民主国家的人民喜欢和平,习惯于按照法律和条约思考问题。所以他们常常会犯一种错误,就是以为别人和自己一样,不明白别人和自己也许不一样。特别是不明白暴君的思维不是遵守法律和条约,而是恃强凌弱的丛林法则。

 

基辛格等等中国共产党的老朋友们高声辩解说:他们自己说了要韬光养晦。美国人不懂这句中国成语的意思,以为是刀枪入库,马放蓝山。其实这句成语的真正意思是:把箭藏在箭套里假装和平,时机合适的时候再拿出来致人于死地。

 

这才是两种思维方式的根本差别。现在习近平的手正在摸着箭套里的那枝毒箭,向周边国家跃跃欲试。他确实有点等不及了。不是国际环境让他等不及,而是国内的困境让他等不及。如果没有国际警察愿意为和平承担责任,和平已经不复存在了。

 

说到这里大家已经可以看出:那些主张绥靖政策的国际大忽悠是在帮助谁说话。如果他们真是头脑清醒的学者,那他们就是在为了私利而出卖自己的同胞。当然美国现代的另一个政治传统是:谁会卖国谁吃香。所以各种忽悠美国人民的那些学者才会成为时髦。

 

  

相关录音:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2015/WeiJS151112onKissingerHwrong.mp3

 

(撰写并录音于2015年11月12日。自由亚洲电台播出。)

 

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