Young Americans cite the good life of Taiwan and the failures of the Chinese Communists in oratorical contest sponsored by the U.S. Friends of Free China organization
"Freedom has brought prosperity and pride" to the Republic of China, said Miss Pauline Wan of San Jose, California, as she won first place in the finals of the I Speak for Freedom oratorical contest sponsored by the U.S. Friends of Free China. Regional winners competed at Tucson, Arizona, April 30.
The contest brought entries from high school students all over the United States. Miss Lisa Panosian of Greenville, South Carolina, was second; Miss Jeanine Gozdecki of Munster, Indiana, third; and Miss Jeanne Lindner of Charlottesville, Virginia, fourth. Prizes were college scholarships.
The speeches of Lisa Panosian and Jeanne Lindner were published in the Congressional Record and included in the article "Our Friends the Americans" in the June issue of the Free China Review. The speeches of Pauline Wan and Jeanine Gozdecki are included in this article.
All contestants pledged that they did their own research and wrote their own speeches. This is clearly brought out in presentations which obviously came from the facts and the heart and not from the emanations of propagandists. The idea of the U.S. Friends of Free China was to concentrate attention on the Republic of China's dedication to freedom and democracy. The intention succeeded not only with students in scores of participating high schools but also with a nationwide audience interested in the Tucson finals.
In her autobiographical sketch, Pauline Wan wrote:
I was born on April 1, 1964, in San Jose. However, my father being an employee of IBM, my family didn't stay there very long. Since 1964, I've lived in Philadelphia, Hawaii and Georgia. In 1978, we moved back to San Jose and, quite frankly, I'm glad to be back. Living in so many different places has given my family and me a taste for traveling. We've vacationed almost everywhere in the United States and about six years ago, we took a trip to the Orient, including Japan, Thailand, Hongkong and, of course, Taiwan.
I now attend Lynbrook High School, a public school near my home. As I am graduating in three years, I am a senior this year. I am planning to attend college next year and have, applied to Standford, Princeton, Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley, the last of which has already accepted me. I am not exactly sure what my major will be, but it will definitely be in the liberal arts, perhaps English. After college, I hope to attend law school.
At Lynbrook, I am primarily involved in forensics and music. I have participated in speech and debate all three years of high school. Attending a number of speech tournaments, I have acquired some familiarity with competition. Speech, I feel, has given me a certain degree of poise whether I speak before a group or before one person. Music, has also played a great part in my life. I play both the piano and violin, the former for ten years, the latter for five years. I greatly enjoy music as it helps me to relax.
Most of my time, however, is devoted to academics. I study a great deal in order to maintain a 4.0 grade point average, that is, straight As. My diligence has been rewarded by a number of awards in both the sciences and liberal arts.
My family encourages me in everything I do. Besides my parents, I have a sister, Mona, who is presently a freshman at M.I.T. I am close to both my sets of grandparents; one set lives with me while the other set lives nearby in San Francisco.
The text of Miss Wan's winning speech follows:
Two hundred years ago, the American colonies were controlled by an unresponsive government located two thousand miles away. The atmosphere in the colonies was one of economic repression as the English government raised taxes. Thus, in 1776, the American colonies united and threw off the yoke of English oppression. Now the United States is the most prosperous country in the world while Great Britain has slipped far from her former position as world leader.
Thirty years ago, the Communists in China united as the Americans did and threw off what they considered to be the Republic of China's yoke of oppression. Now Communist China is not the most successful country in the world. Rather, it is among the least developed countries, while the Republic of China is numbered among the world's rapidly rising economies.
The disparity between the two Chinas is painfully obvious in a comparison of their standards of living. The per capita annual income in Taiwan is over $2,000 U.S. dollars. Income in mainland China is only $200 dollars per year. In terms of material possessions, in Taiwan there are 250 cars for every 10,000 people. Relative to the United States, that figure may appear small, but compared to the mainland China figure of 12 cars per 10,000 people, the Republic of China is quite well off.
Why is there such a huge difference between the economic progress of the two nations? The answer lies in the widely different governmental philosophies of the two countries. Mainland China is a communistic society based on a centrally planned economy. The Republic of China, however, is essentially a free enterprise system similar to the United States.
The fundamental weakness under the Chinese Communist organization is its inability to change. The system is a rigid one with strict dogmatic ideas which do not allow for innovations. Furthermore, it provides no incentives for individuals to work hard and excel. In 1958, the commune system was established. In 1980, 200 million people are on the point of starvation as a result of stagnant agricultural production caused by an inflexible and unrewarding system. Yet despite this terrible state of poverty, the government has not chosen to remove its cause although modification is obviously warranted.
In contrast to the inflexibility of the Communist system is the constantly changing and advancing free enterprise system. The government of Free China, unlike that of mainland China, does not attempt to dictate what the economy must be composed of. Rather, it simply regulates the economy as it is. The result is free competition and an emphasis on industry. Competition promotes higher quality products at cheaper prices. These products have attracted a world market for Taiwan. Between the years 1953 and 1978, foreign trade rose from 300 million to 20 billion, a spectacular increase by any standard. Foreign investment has also increased dramatically. Multinational corporations have established subsidiaries in Taiwan, taking, advantage of the large labor force. Unemployment on the island is less than two percent.
Alongside the economic success of Taiwan is the failure of the poorly planned Communist economy. With Chairman Mao's conviction that ideology should command came a static economic situation. Since Mao's death, Communist leaders have come to realize the importance of economic freedom in promoting progress and have begun an ambitious program aimed at revitalizing their economy. This program includes many of the aspects which helped Taiwan progress, including foreign trade and investment. Though it has not drastically shifted its policies. Communist China is apparently moving gradually toward a freer market economy. A recent government publication from Peiping carried the following slogan, "To improve our economy, we must copy Taiwan." Thus we can see that even the Communists recognize the advantages of a free enterprise system — that is, a flexible program allowing innovation and competition.
In 1776, the Americans fought for the right to establish a free market economy. In 1949, the Republic of China chose to establish their vision of economic freedom. During the following thirty years, the remarkable success of that system proved to the government that its policies were effective. For the citizens of the Republic of China, freedom has brought prosperity and pride in their economic progress as a nation.
Miss Jeanine Gozdecki (File photo)
Jeanine Marie Gozdecki wrote in her autobiography:
As the second oldest of five children, I have three brothers and a sister, ranging in age from 10 to 29. Though born in Hammond, Indiana, I have spent most of my life in neighboring Munster. After kindergarten I attended St. Thomas More grade school for eight years. In 1977 I entered Munster High School as a freshman, and have since been extremely involved in various activities. During these past four years I have devoted the majority of my time as an officer to speech and debate and cheerleading, but also have been involved in the Pep Club, Girls' Varsity Golf, Student Government and National Honor Society. As a junior I qualified for the National Speech and Debate Tournament as a Representative in Congress. Although I'm not quite an experienced world traveler, last summer I spent seven weeks in France participating in the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Languages. After these busy, but certainly most enjoyable years, I am looking forward to the challenges I shall meet in college.
The text of Miss Gozdecki's third place speech follows:
"The most powerful single force in the world today is neither Communism nor capitalism, neither the H-bomb nor the guided missile — it is man's eternal desire to be free and independent."
This quotation by John F. Kennedy adequately illustrates man's universal desire for freedom, which has not been altered by the passage of time. We are all well aware of our fore-fathers who experienced this powerful force in establishing these United States. Nearly 200 years later this identical desire for man's independence was again exemplified. In 1949 Chiang Kai-shek, a Chinese political leader in search of freedom from Communism, was driven from mainland China to a neighboring island. There, on this tiny island, Chiang Kai-shek established the Republic of China on Taiwan.
From the very beginning Taiwan was labeled as a failure by other nations. Even the United States State Department quietly circulated word that a takeover of Taiwan by the Communists was imminent and that economic prosperity was impossible. Yet, in light of the fact that Taiwan has continued its independence for more than 30 years, it appears as though Taiwan has successfully defied those early predictions. Instead, Taiwan has risen both militarily and economically, and the question which inevitably accompanies such advancements confronts us, "How does economic freedom affect progress on the Republic of China on Taiwan?"
First of all, for an island one-fourth the size of Illinois harboring 17 million people, Taiwan's military displays solid evidence of substantial progress. Though it began in 1949 with virtually nothing, Taiwan has since expanded its forces, as mentioned in the January 14, 1980, issue of U.S. News & World Report, to 500,000 men who are prepared, armed and ready for combat. Fortifying this initial number are 1.3 million trained reservists. Taiwan not only has built up its troops, but also has acquired potent equipment as well. According to Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, Taiwan possesses 200 F5E fighter planes in its proficient Air Force. The importance of this figure is emphasized by Goldwater, stating that these fighter planes are more effective and more powerful than any plane (Communist) China has or is likely to develop. Taiwan's Navy, too, is accredited as being small but extremely efficient in its maneuvers, which signifies that militarily, Taiwan prided itself on quality before quantity.
Economic freedom, therefore, has had obvious effects upon Taiwan's military. But, to reiterate the importance of economic freedom, one must carefully examine the economic progress of Taiwan.
The statistics speak for themselves. The Chicago Tribune reported on February 4, 1979, that the gross national product of Taiwan has grown by an average of more than 8 percent a year for the past 25 years. It also indicates that the unemployment rate for 17 million Taiwanese is only 1.5 percent, and inflation stands at approximately 6 percent. Robert Parker, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, alleges the reason for the solid economic indicators is that the Taiwanese are "educated, well-fed, hard-working and dedicated people." Such dedication has swept in millions of dollars in foreign investment. Newsweek, September 29, 1980, remarked that the United States had invested over 80 million dollars in 1979; and overall foreign investment in 1979 was 54 percent higher than in 1978, indicative of a strong, expanding and stable economy.
Clearly, economic freedom has enabled Taiwan to reach goals once thought to be unattainable. It has developed militarily, in addition to economically, and for a tiny island of 17 million people, it can easily be envied. No, Taiwan is not exempt from problems — they exist and always will, but the profitable effects of economic freedom on Taiwan's progress is undeniable. In a few words, Taiwan's success story is told by an American business executive in Taiwan, "They seem to have done everything right."
Congratulating the regional I Speak for Freedom winners during the course of the second annual U.S. national meeting of the Friends of Free China was Konsin C. Shah, the outgoing chief of the U.S. office of the Coordination Council for North American Affairs.
"It is most encouraging," he said, "that these talented young ladies are, through their eloquence, spreading the vital message across this great nation that we must all uphold the value of freedom. You have reinforced our ranks as advocates for liberty and justice."
A partial text of Ambassador Shah's remarks to the Friends of Free China follows:
Your continued support for the Republic of China accords much encouragement to all Free Chinese. Please continue to have even more faith in us. Standing firm on our national policy of "no compromise with Communism," the Republic of China continues to gain strength and prosperity. Resolutely and unceasingly, we seek to strengthen our democratic and constitutional government. Last December we held "supplementary parliamentary elections" for 70 seats in the national legislature, 76 seats in the National Assembly and 22 seats in the Control Yuan. Local-born young candidates scored big gains, thus continuously widening indigenous representation extensively at the national level. The high voter turnout and orderly balloting reflect the successful implementation of the principle of democracy.
Our successful land reform program and the implementation of the Land-to-the-Tiller system have been generally acknowledged in the Free World and some Communist countries as a shining example of not only equitable, peaceful redistribution of agricultural land, but also the creation of a throbbing and thriving domestic market.
Do we gloat about our laurels? No. We have embarked on the second stage of our land reform, both rural and urban, to avert the disadvantages of overfragmentation of already too small, irregularly shaped and difficult to manage farmlands. First we remodel fragmented paddy fields into rectangular plots of larger size, each surrounded by new roads and irrigation and drainage ditches. Then we plow up dry farming areas and shape them into 3-hectare plots of rectangular shape. Farmlands thus consolidated make use and management easier and more economical. As the rural population decreases when large numbers of younger people move to the cities for higher jobs and education, the loss of manpower on the farms is compensated for through better farm machinery and planting methods to achieve higher unity productivity.
Urban land reform measures emphasize suppression of land speculation. We now impose levies on vacant lots or idle land at progressive rates, according to priorities set up by a published urban development plan in each city.
In our 12 new major construction projects now under way to further boost the ever-expanding infrastructure, emphasis is laid on community development. Along with necessary economic development of expanding and newly created communities, improvement of both cultural and health aspects receive due attention. The aim is, of course, to enrich both the physical and mental well-being of the entire population.
Equitable distribution of wealth is readily noticeable even to a casual observer or a tourist on arrival in Taiwan. The Free Chinese people on Taiwan today enjoy an egalitarian society as the income ratio between the top 20 percent and the bottom 20 percent has been narrowed down from 15 to 1 in 1951 and to only 4 to 1 today. The target set by our founding father Dr. Sun Yat-sen in his Three Principles of the People has already been successfully met.
Stable growth is stressed in the new 10-year economic development plan covering the years 1980 to 1989. Last year our gross national product amounted to US$27.9 billion (or $2,282 per capita) and gross national income was $24.5 billion (which works out to $2,101 per capita). This year we aim to achieve a growth rate of 7.5 percent with a per capita GNP of $2,622. For comparison, a growth rate of 6.7 percent was attained in 1980.
We will continue to improve the industrial structure with greater emphasis on technology-intensive industries. For the current year, the industrial growth target has been set at 8.1 percent. Industrial output will account for 52.3 percent of the GNP, as compared with 40.6 percent for services and 7.1 percent for agriculture.
Although our government remains an important economic factor in supplying essential domestic services and some goods, it does not attempt to compete with the entrepreneurs who produced $20 billion worth of goods for export last year. Our foreign trade reached nearly $39.5 billion with both exports and imports exceeding their targets. The two-way trade value was 27.9 percent higher than that of 1979. Despite ever rising energy costs (we spent in 1980 some $5 billion on imported crude oil and fuel alone), increasing protectionism and economic slowdown in the world, we are still able to continue to expand our trade — though at much less profit than in recent years.
In the first quarter of 1981, our maritime customs data showed Taiwan exports totaling $4.886 billion (a gain of 8.5 percent over the same period of 1980) and imports totaling $5.369 billion (a gain of 19.9 percent). For the first time in years, there was a deficit (of $483 million) for the quarter. But we expect to have the deficit offset by surpluses in the coming months to result in a modest favorable balance for the whole year.
Elsewhere we have been widening our foreign trade base. Last year we began to trade with seven eastern European countries on a people-to people basis. Exports to Central and South America grew by 70 percent in 1980. Export markets in Africa gained by 60 percent and in Europe by 40 percent in the past year.
Increased trading activities have brought closer relationships with European countries — even though still on an unofficial basis. The United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Greece and Belgium all set up trade and cultural offices in Taiwan. Leading European banks, too, have set up branch offices or correspondent agencies in my country.
That diversification of trading areas is successful can be seen in the fact that in the first quarter of this year, the growth rate in our trade with both the Central and South American areas and the African countries has topped 50 percent.
I am gratified that the program of this national convention this year included a "Taiwan economic trade seminar." Even though bilateral trade between our two countries has beep growing at an average of 25 percent annually over the past 30 years, there is still potential to be tapped to the mutual benefit of both sides. Since 1970 the United States has been our No. 1 trading partner. Our two-way trade in 1980 exceeded $11.4 billion. The Republic of China remains as America's second largest trading partner In Asia and the seventh in the world.
My government's policy of balancing worldwide trade by encouraging more imports from the United States and Europe will help keep American sales to Taiwan growing at a steady pace, including items such as industrial machinery, aircraft, nuclear reactors for electric power plants and farm products.
It is predicted that this year's total American exports to the Republic of China will amount to some $6 billion. That would be 28 percent higher than the 1980 value. Two-way trade between our countries this year is forecast to total $14 billion with the Increase of American exports growing faster than U.S. imports.
My government will continue to strive to narrow our trade surplus with your country. You may have heard that the sixth "Buy American" procurement mission arrived in this land at the end of March. The 50-member group is expected to buy some $1.1 billion worth of American products during its two-month "shopping spree" from coast to coast.
Major items on the special trade mission's shopping list this time include petroleum drilling, telecommunications and power generation equipment and supplies, forklift trucks, tractors, coal, and agricultural products such as soybeans, maize, Wheat, barley and cotton.
Those of you who hail from farm belt areas of the nation will be glad to know, I hope, that last year's U.S. farm products (mainly soybeans, maize, cotton and wheat) sold to Taiwan amounted to no less than $1.1 billion, which represents nearly a quarter of total U.S. exports to Taiwan for the year. This year the total is likely to aggregate $4.2 to $1.3 billion.
Even though our diplomatic ties regrettably remain disrupted at present, cordial relations are maintained with many state governments and cities of this country. There is an active exchange of visits by delegations and groups. They are concerned with promoting trade, establishing sister city relations, exchanging professors and students or paying each other goodwill visits.
On the cultural side, more than 13,000 Chinese students from Taiwan attend universities and colleges throughout this country. As a rule, they are diligent in their studies. Frequently they also serve as a campus bridge in promoting mutual understanding.
Across 100 miles of water, the growing public disillusionment with socialism can no longer be hushed up. After 30 years of misrule, the Chinese Communist overlords have to admit that there is a spreading sense of frustration with the Communist party's leadership. Incessant power struggles have continued unabated. Even the official mouthpiece recently voiced its lamentation about the debilitating power struggles and discord.
Now that large numbers of foreigners have been allowed to visit or to reside on the mainland, the Free World is learning more and more the true picture of the messy state of affairs in Communist China. From press dispatches, personal letters and observations, a mosaic of inept administration, widepread corruption, deep-rooted bureaucracy and nepotism, worsening social order and failure to reverse the bad economic trend has been etched.
Almost daily one finds in American metropolitan newspapers headlines such as "People Losing Faith in Marxism," "Great Leap Envisioned by Europe in Trade Is Slipping Away" and "Japanese Hope of Using Oil Purchases to Finance Trade Is Slipping Away." If you can read the Chinese language newspapers published in Hongkong or even in Chinese mainland cities, you will be able to gain an even deeper insight into the widepread chaos and discontent which can no longer be covered up.
In recent months some of my friends and I have noticed in the American press an attempt by liberal or rather pro-Communist writers and retired diplomats to launch a "defend Teng Hsiao-ping movement." Their line of argument is simplistic, to say the least. It goes like this:
1. To counter the expansionist intentions of Soviet Russia, the United States badly needs Communist China.
2. Communist China, however, needs stability.
3. To achieve stability, Communist China must have Teng Hsiao-ping, pictured as a moderate or pragmatist.
4. Teng Hsiao-ping cannot hold on to political power unless he wins out on the Taiwan issue.
5. Therefore, the United States must put the Republic of China on a silver platter and hand it over to Peiping.
The "defend Teng movement" is an intellectual-foreign policy offensive masterminded by Peiping and its friends for the sole purpose of enhancing Peiping's interests and not those of the United States. Please let me explain.
First of all, the arguments used by the proponents do not hold water. To begin with, Peiping is not an effective strategic deterrent to Russia's expansionism. Peiping's armed forces have no offensive power against Russian armed might. Russia can start a local insurgency in the far western province of Sinkiang. The nearest Sino-Russian border is 3,000 miles away from Moscow, and yet Outer Mongolia's border is less than 400 miles from Peiping. The Russians know this all too well, even if Peiping's friends have done their best to misguide the American public and some of America's past policymakers.
Second, friends of Teng Hsiao-ping insist that his position should be secured because he is "moderate" and "pragmatic." It was not so long ago when Khrushchev came out openly denouncing Stalin's crimes against the Russian people in particular and against mankind in general. It was also Khrushchev who came to the United States and pounded a shoe on the lectern at the United Nations, screaming "We'll bury you! "One did not hear that Khrushchev should be defended in Soviet Russia so that the Stalinists would never be returned to power. Are we sure that we are not defending Teng so that he may come back to the United Nations some day and pound the other shoe?
We also heard what friends of Teng Hsiao-ping said next. "Not keeping the joint communique between the Carter administration and Peiping," these people will say: "American honor is at stake." I fail to see how American honor was upheld by the same people who broke relations with an ally of the United States during a congressional recess, dragging its president out of bed at 2 o'clock in the morning, thereby sending all Third World small powers who look to the United States for leadership reeling with apprehension and disgust.
Those apologists of Chinese Communists who were singing praises of the "great cultural revolution" long after the Communists had abandoned it in shame will continue to support whoever grabs power in Peiping after Teng, be he a Maoist or Tengist, and "defend" him. They should be reminded to get busy defending the United States and the rest of the Free World.
Allow me to tell you of my conviction. The Chinese Communist regime has been marching backward in many ways since its inception in 1949. No amount of money, machinery and advice can really help them in their attempt at modernization.
Do we still have any doubt as to why the voice of "Let us emulate Taiwan" is heard and echoed from many parts of the Chinese mainland these days? Or why overseas Chinese the world over are appealing to the Communist hierarchy to "give up Communism? "
Over here we are happy to note that more and more chapters of the Friends of Free China are being founded from coast to coast. Throughout this great country, members of the Friends of Free China have continuously and generously given us encouragement which spurs us to carryon with even more vigor and confidence our avowed mission of making every Free Chinese proud of his or her country — a country which is ever progressing on the way to becoming a true model — of emerging, democratic, peaceful and egalitarian nations. This is the country which Americans should save, not the regime which turned the mainland into a living hell.
I also want to take this opportunity to express particularly our deep appreciation for the FOFC's ambitious project of sponsoring a series of concerns and public appearances in Taiwan by famous American artists in the coming months — as a "birthday present" to the people of the Republic of China in celebration of our Republic's 70th founding anniversary on October 10.
Two years ago I came to fill a gap when the Sino-American traditional relationship was disrupted, hoping to endeavor to change the scene for the better. By the grace of God and the determination and goodwill of the American people —particularly loyal friends like your good selves — it was. Therefore my wife and I will be leaving your country at the end of my tour in Washington bountifully blessed by your friendship, which is the only thing that makes parting difficult. We sincerely welcome you to visit the Republic of China and we look forward to seeing you again.