POLITICAL REFORM IS CHINA’S BIG NEED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22657, 7 June 1948, Page 6

POLITICAL REFORM IS CHINA’S BIG NEED

SYDNEY. May 12.

The greatest political reform needed in China was the development of a political opposition as an integral element of democratic procedure, the retiring Australian Minister in China, Professor D. B. Copland, told the United Nations Association. The existence of two major parties with armies engaged in civil war was a clear indication of the need for some form of political opposition on the lines accepted as normal in western democracies. , In the present conflict, nothing had happened to suggest that these forces would not, once more, exert a determining influence and re-establish a United China. The revolution had been successful in asserting Chinese nationalism arid removing the foreign concessions and other evidences of foreign intervention in the past century. Australians, in their own interests, should not overlook China’s great influence in East Asia. While China might be regarded as weak, it was a mistake to underestimate her influence in Eastern affairs and in international affairs in general. A superficial interpretation of the Chinese situation tended to emphasise the disunity of China, but what was remarkable about China was the strength of the underlying forces promoting unity. »