C.C Lin:            Dear Bob, as you are my long-time friend having in the same school four times, I do not want to argue with you and always respect your own point of view.

However, in this case "I AGREE TO DISAGREE WITH YOU" again which is "true democracy". Sun and his Chinese followers overthrown the badly failed Qing government in 1911 which was supported by oversea Chinese but NOT by foreign government and definitely NOT in the same context as the "Occupy Central". In fact, most foreign governments preferred to take full advantage of the weak Qing government so they can continue to reap self-benefit from that. "Occupy Central" which badly disrupt the live of the Hong Kong people and severely damaged the economy of Hong Kong, is clearly "ILLEGAL". 

As you may recall, I was a "political refugee" and I "escaped" to Hong Kong from the mainland with almost nothing in the late 1950s.

Since 1985, I took at least one trip to mainland China on business every year and witnessed the dramatic transformation of mainland China. I was on a business trip to Beijing with 2 US company senior executives (one was born in Hungary and the other born in East Germany) in May 1989 and stayed at Beijing Hotel just east of the "Forbidden City" within sight of the Square. 

Witnessing the chaotic situation both in Shanghai and Beijing at that time, we immediately cut short our business trip and subsequently suspended our China business operations for 9 months until the situation in China has been stabilized. At that time the Chinese economic condition was still very poor and industrial as well as agricultural productivity was very low as a result of the continuing aftereffect of the 10 years of the chaotic "Cultural Revolution" which China officially declared as an "ERROR". If the chaotic condition would continue to this day, the condition in China would be extremely bad and conceivably turning it into a "Stone Age" country.

I spent a lot of time in mainland China during the past 3 years. While there are still problems in the mainland such as corruption which dates back thousands of years in China, the conditions (particularly economic, industrial and business productivity, education as well as living standard) has improved dramatically comparing to 1985.  The current leadership has been taking action to resolve the age-old corruption problem which would take time. I have been able to have frank discussions on all types of issues with the mainlanders. They are capable of visiting and even immigrating to other countries. Today, many westerners are working in mainland China, including at least 5 western Nobel Prize winners (one Physiology & Medicine winner from Stanford and another from Yale) as Directors of major research institutes.  Most people are happy in mainland China including over 60 of the graduate students I taught and closely interact with even after they graduated. Many of them are quite unhappy with the current "chaotic" condition in Hong Kong as they get the news.

Hong Kong is part of China. American style "democracy" may not be appropriate for China as whole. In recent years, the US government has been crippled many times by the irrational political in-fighting between the Democrat and Republican Parties.

I taught more than 10 Master degree graduate students from HKU, CUHK, Poly U and City U in recent years on the "Industrial Biotechnology Summer Internship Program". I found these Hong Kong students were not as diligent and eager to learn as comparable graduate students from the mainland. I also found they generally lack proper understanding of being the citizen of China's Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong and generally ignorant of the history of China whereas the mainland Chinese students have adequate citizenship education which is nothing like the political indoctrination of the bad old days.

In my humble opinion, proper integration of Hong Kong (like that of Macau which apparently occurs rather smoothly) as a Special Administrative Region of China in the context of "One Country, Two Systems" is good for both Hong Kong and the mainland. Today's China is truly a growing major economy in this world and no foreign country can slow down the continuing development of China. Given time, China as a whole would be more "democratic" in the context of the condition in China.  Like that of the very unfortunate tragic event of June 1989 in the mainland which I personally witnessed a part of it on site, chaotic condition in Hong Kong (whether or not supported by foreign government) is counter-productive to the achievement of such objective for China.

Bob, it is nothing personal!

                        The following is news report entitled "新加坡外長:西方佔中報道帶成見" published in the Hong Kong newspaper October 5th, 2014 which is apparently similar to my point of view in my last email of yesterday (US time). When Singapore was forced out of the Malaysia Federation in 1965, then Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (father of the current Prime Minister 李顯龍) faced tremendous challenges with iron hands. He successfully resolved the challenges (Please refer to Attachment I)

- To be Continued -

Attachment I

李顯龍總理：外人不應摻合港「佔中」

【文匯網訊】對香港「佔領中環」非法集會，新加坡總理與高官也表達了自己的意見。新加坡《聯合早報》4日報道稱，針對香港情況與西方輿論，新加坡外長尚穆根受訪時指出，西方媒體對香港做了許多不實、帶有反華成見的報道，反之中國中央政府的觀點被忽視。

尚穆根說：「西方媒體隱去了一個事實，就是過去150年以來，香港並沒有實行民主制度。港英政府和香港媒體從來沒有討論香港實現民主的問題，1984年的《中英聯合聲明》也沒有提到普選。」

據新加坡媒體《南洋視界》網站4日報道，新加坡總理李顯龍3日在一個大學的論壇上，被問及香港問題。李顯龍說，香港不是一個主權國家，必須遵守一國兩制，外人不應干涉。

李顯龍：香港不是一個國家，它是一國兩制

李顯龍3日在新加坡國立大學協會演講，並出席對話會時，被問及香港問題。李顯龍說，香港不是一個國家，它是一國兩制。「在英殖民時期，香港從未舉行過選舉。」

他說，在英殖民結束後，中國做出一國兩制的安排，在香港也有一些有限的民主形式，最後擴大到直接普選。李顯龍指出，所以治理香港的法律是基本法，香港的主權是中國的，地緣現實是，香港是中國的一部分。

「中國要香港取得成功，也為香港取得成功做好萬全的準備，但中國不希望香港成為深圳河另一邊的麻煩。絕對不希望。」李顯龍說，所以香港人必須確保一國兩制可行，而香港人和中央政府必須一起來做到這一點。

官員選舉特首，李顯龍認為，這是香港和中國必須解決的問題，但必須以符合香港利益、不傷害中國利益，符合法律和基本法的方式來進行。 

對於香港正在進行的示威，李顯龍說，外人不應該摻合。

「如果其他群體捲入，用來作為對中國施壓或者改變中國的方式。我在報紙上看到，來自台北太陽花學運的學生跑來切磋，教你如何佔領什麼地方，我不認為這需要幫助。」

李顯龍警告說，這將只會讓事情更複雜。

香港目前民主空間比港英時代大新加坡外長尚穆根他提醒說，根據北京現在提出的政改方案，香港得到的民主空間，已超過在港英時代所得到的。

尚穆根是在辦公室接受《聯合早報》專訪。他分析說，西方傳媒報道中常見的論點就是：中國否定民主。他記得曾看到一篇報道說，香港是因為享有自由才取得經濟成功，而中國大陸正在衝擊香港的自由。

他提出，除了很少數比較平衡的言論外，香港情況的真相沒有在西方報道中呈現。事實是，過去150年香港並沒有民主，英殖民地政府和香港媒體也不討論民主，普選課題也不在《中英聯合聲明》中。

他說：「北京現在提出的，已超過香港在英國治下所得，可是西方媒體並沒報道這一點。」

尚穆根也指出，談香港的情況，大家也需要瞭解中國中央政府的視角。中國大陸的重點是保持團結、經濟發展、讓13億人口過更好的生活，要實現這些，首要條件就是使國家得到良好的治理。如果現階段推行相互制衡的多黨選舉制度，中國領導人會認為，這將阻礙中國實現目標。

視美國蘇聯為前車之鑒 中國短期內不啟動重大政治變革

今天中國的人均國民生產總值是6800美元，領導人的目標是使國家達到中等繁榮水平。尚穆根認為，在此之前，中國不會採取任何民主化的動作，中國領導人只要看到國際上兩個例子，就能印證他們的看法。

這兩個例子就是美國與蘇聯。 

美國因兩黨惡鬥，造成政治制度失效。政府無法通過財政預算，不能解決預算赤字問題，處理移民法改革，公立學校不能提供有品質的小學教育，政府不能處理犯罪與暴力問題。美國選舉的週期短，也導致它不能從長遠眼光制定政策。

「中國會看著這一切，然後說，一個比較貧窮，發展比較落後的國家，負擔不起(政治制度運作失效)的這種奢侈。」

蘇聯當年是在經濟還未改革時就進行政治改革。在蘇聯解體後，俄羅斯力量薄弱，西方大國也沒有給予它尊重與關注。尚穆根分析說，所以中國的立場很堅定。中國在短期內不會啟動重大政治變革，中國領導人相信任何這樣的動作，將給中國帶來災難性的後果，使人民受到損害。

「所以，中國中央政府會用這樣的方式來處理香港的事務，它不能讓香港改變中國大陸本身的政治制度。中央在香港允 許什麼，都可能對大陸其他地方產生衝擊。因此，中央領導將非常小心，不大可能向示威者的要求妥協。從中國領導人的角度看，向這些要求妥協，可能影響中國整 體的穩定。「我覺得他們的這些觀點是完全可以理解的。」

Source:  http://paper.wenweipo.com/2014/10/05/YO1410050008.htm