“總有一天，到那時，……，所有的歐洲國家，無須丟掉你們各自的特點和閃光的個性，都將緊緊地融合在一個高一級的整體裏；到那時，你們將構築歐洲的友愛關係……”                                  

- 雨果 (Victor Hugo,1802-1885)

Taiwan, China can learn from Europe Day

By C. V. Chen

Dr. C. V. Chen is chairman of the Taipei European School Foundation. (

陳長文博士為財團法人台北歐洲學校董事長 )

Today is Europe Day, and I have very mixed feelings towards a day with a name like that. For Chinese people in particular, the name "Europe" evokes simultaneous feelings of hate and love, fear and respect.

  The fear and hate part derives from the merciless bombardment from European gunboats that shook China, an ancient civilization spanning 5 millennia, from a thousand-year mentality of confidence and superiority in which it had believed itself "situated in the center of the earth, surrounded by barbarian states," almost overnight. This also brought along a century of uprisings and calamities, a period of history painful to look back on.

  The love and respect part has the same root. Merciless as the gunboat policy was on the surface, it sowed the seeds for the development of an integrated system in China. Democracy, rule of law, human rights and freedom all come from the kernels of civilization within this system: They did not exist in the traditional Chinese political system, which cared little for them. After a century of unrest, these seeds have gradually began to flourish among the Chinese. In Taiwan, these elements of civilization have already grown into a robust tree, protecting the freedom and peace of the Taiwanese people with its shade. Although these same elements are just barely breaking through the soil in China and are still in the initial stages of growth, they show promise of growing to be vigorous and strong, assuring the Chinese of happier days ahead.

In recent generations, in order to eradicate the encroachment and destruction visited on us by the imperialism of a century ago, Europe has played a major role in promoting the advance of a modern, integrated human civilization. Even more admirable is the fact that Europe is still the main proponent of this cause even today. The EU is a measure of the achievement of this drive. It has been drawing up the blueprint for a better world transcending national borders in which everyone works as one towards happiness.

On May 9, 1950, then French foreign minister Robert Schuman announced the Schuman Declaration, calling on European countries, and in particular France and Germany, to pool their capabilities in producing their major strategic resources, coal and steel. The call was received very favorably and in the following year, under the co-operation of France and Germany, the European Coal and Steel Community was established, the precursor of today's EU.

Since May 1 the EU has taken in ten more member states, including some former communist Eastern European and Mediterranean countries. This brings the total amount of members to 25, making it a new politico-economic body with a population of 450 million. This was not only a great day for Europe, but promises unlimited new possibilities for the whole world. It makes possible the abolition of national, cultural, linguistic and religious barriers using peaceful and co-operative means, as well as the consolidation of the global community.

This level of success with integration was hardly imaginable before. Ever since the eruption of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, France and Germany have erected fences of hate between them. For many decades afterwards, this enmity between the two countries was the fuse setting off large-scale wars in both Europe and the rest of the world. Each conflict deepened the hatred. It took the bloody lessons of two world wars for the politicians and peoples of the two countries to realize that the borders between them could only result in further accumulation of hate that would end in calamity for the people of not only France and Germany, but of Europe as a whole.

The only path to peace was to destroy the fences erected between them and to unite in a common cause. Once they realized this, the two countries made a dramatic transition from being deadly enemies to becoming allies, and then from allies to members of a family.

Putting aside their enmity, they started moving towards integration, laying the foundations for a robust peace and stability in Europe. In order to commemorate this impressive and valuable achievement the leaders of the European Community, the precursor to the EU, decided during the 1985 summit in Milan, to name May 9 every year as Europe Day.

This shows how different the Europe of today is from that of a century ago. Despite the fact that the Europe of 100 years ago did bring some kind of systematized civilization to the world, they employed imperialistic tactics, bringing much suffering and chaos to other countries. As a result, our love is tinged with reproach, and our respect accompanied by fear. The Europe of today has been elevated to the status of a "pioneer of integration", bringing enlightenment to humanity with wisdom and magnanimity, conducting an experiment of a common system transcending national boundaries for the globalized modern world.

One would hope that the success of the EU will inspire a new wave of integration all over the world. It is because of this that we should have nothing but respect and love for modern Europe, and can leave hate and fear behind us.

The success witnessed in Europe should be admired and learned from when looking at cross-strait relations today. Hate can only lead to more hate, and goodwill must create more goodwill. Following the Franco-Prussian War, both France and Germany embarked on strengthening their military capabilities on the assumption that this would ensure national security. On the contrary, however, these measures only built the ramparts of hate even higher, and the atmosphere of confrontation and anxiety lead to war after war.

The logic employed then is almost identical to that informing the policies of the leaders on each side of the Taiwan Strait: China is not abandoning its military threat, and Taiwan is ploughing the huge sum of NT$200 billion annually into its national defense budget, hoping that this will guarantee national security.

In truth, this logic will result in the opposite of the intended outcome. Could it be that the lessons learned at France and Germany's cost have not been learned well enough? Why are we moving along the same ill-fated route in the cross-straits situation?

Nowadays, Germany and France are no longer stuck in the quagmire of mutual escalation of aggression, and resources formerly earmarked for protecting themselves against each other or for financing aggression have been diverted to promoting welfare. What's more, in this process of mutual co-operation they have deepened the compassion and trust between them, removing the soil which nourished the roots of war.

This is the greatest insurance for national security. Why is this hugely successful turnaround, in which co-operation has dissolved mutual enmity, invisible to the governments and peoples either side of the Strait?

The shared destiny and linked fortunes of these countries are the products of an irreversible process, and the only way forward is for them to stand united and rely on each other. All it requires is for the leaders and people of the two sides of the straits to learn from the wisdom and foresight of the people of Europe what Europe Day represents. Then perhaps we could embark on a road that would benefit the people on either side of the Strait.


TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER  

TAIPEI TIMES Sunday, May 09, 2004,Page 8