——评郑丽文旧金山讲话
作者：郑存柱
中国国民党主席郑丽文日前在旧金山发表讲话，提到几个“奇迹”：台湾的民主奇迹，与中国大陆改革开放的经济奇迹。寥寥数语，却把今日国民党两岸论述的两重困境暴露无遗——一重叫“一厢情愿”，一重叫“南柯一梦”。郑丽文一厢情愿地承认了大陆的经济奇迹，而国民党放弃民主、单求和平的路线，终将是一场南柯一梦。
一、一厢情愿：一场没有回声的独角戏
郑丽文肯定了大陆的经济奇迹。这本身并非错误——改革开放四十年，大陆的物质成就确实可观。但问题在于，这份“承认”是单方面的、没有回声的。中国共产党从来不曾承认，也根本不愿承认台湾的民主奇迹。
这就是“承认”的不对等，也是两岸关系真正的症结所在。经济上的成就，北京乐于向世界炫示；而政治上的文明进步——亦即两千三百万人用选票、用政党轮替、用新闻自由所写就的民主奇迹——却被刻意回避、贬低，乃至污名化为“乱象”。一方愿意正视对方之长，另一方却连承认都吝于给予。郑丽文的善意，因此成了一厢情愿的独角戏：她对着镜子鞠躬，却以为对面真有人还礼。
一厢情愿的危险，不在于善意本身，而在于它把对手的沉默误读为默许，把对方的不承认误读为可以谈判的空间。当你愿意承认别人的成就、别人却连你存在的正当性都不肯承认时，对话就不是对话，而是俯首。
二、南柯一梦：以放弃民主换取的和平
郑丽文提出“和平救国”，盼望两岸和平。追求和平，原是仁者之心，本应敬重。但和平有真伪之分：没有民主作为前提的和平，不是和平，而是投降。
不妨重温一段历史。1949年的北京，确实“避免了战争，获得了和平”。然而那不是胜利者的和平，而是守军傅作义以放下武器、交出城池的方式换来的和平。城是完整的，人是安全的，可是从此之后，是谁的旗帜插上了城头？是谁的意志主宰了那座古都？以缴械之名，行投降之实，纵然枪声不响，也已是城下之盟。今日若有人以“和平”为名，要台湾在尚未获得对等的民主承诺之前先行让步、先行交付，这样的“和平”，与1949年的北京又有何异？
唐人传奇《南柯太守传》里，淳于棼醉卧古槐之下，梦入“大槐安国”，尚公主、守南柯、出将入相，享尽二十年荣华富贵；一朝梦醒，方知所谓的国，不过是槐树下一个蚁穴而已。今日的国民党，若以为只要放下民主这面旗帜，便能换来对等、尊严、长久的和平统一，那无异于淳于棼的槐安一梦：梦里有公主、有荣华、有“一中各表”的体面，醒来却只是蚁穴一场，城头早已易帜。南柯一梦的可怕，正在于梦中人浑然不觉自己在做梦。
三、民主才是和平的前提
要走出“一厢情愿”与“南柯一梦”，国民党只有一条路：重新认清民主才是和平的前提，而非和平的代价。在此，我愿提出三点。
其一，国民党必须高举自己的核心价值——三民主义。民权主义本身即昭示：民主是和平的前提。失去了三民主义这面旗帜，国民党便失去了安身立命的根本，也失去了在道义上与共产党分庭抗礼的资格，只能在对方设定的语境里被动应答。
其二，国民党负有不可推卸的历史责任：把台湾的民主奇迹带回中国大陆。要让中国共产党明白，融入世界一体化，不能只在经济上、贸易上，更要在政治上接受普世价值。台湾的民主，不应被大陆的专制所“统一”；恰恰相反，台湾的民主经验，正是整个中华民族走向文明的火种与路标。
其三，在两岸议题上，国民党应重新回到“以三民主义统一中国”的传统立场，主动向对岸提出民主的诉求与口号。唯有如此，才能让全体中国人看清楚：究竟是谁，在为一党之私而阻碍两岸的真正统一。把“民主”摆到桌面上，主动权便回到了高举民主旗帜的一方；回避它，主动权便永远握在垄断权力的一方。
结语
国共两党百年恩怨，曲折万端。但历史最终会记住的，不是谁一时的退让换得了几年的安稳，而是谁在关键时刻，站在了人民与自由的一边。一厢情愿换不来对等，南柯一梦醒不出尊严。我们诚挚地希望，国民党不要在别人的蚁穴里寻找自己的南柯郡，而要做台湾民主的守护者，更要做十四亿大陆同胞通向民主的引路人。这，才是真正的“和平救国”。
（作者：中国民主党联总主席 ）
2026年6月6日
编辑：李晶 校对：程筱筱 翻译：戈冰
Cheng Li-wun’s Wishful Thinking and the Kuomintang’s Fond Dream
—— A Commentary on Cheng Li-wun’s San Francisco Speech
By Zheng Cunzhu
Cheng Li-wun, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Kuomintang, recently delivered a speech in San Francisco, mentioning several “miracles”: Taiwan’s democratic miracle and Mainland China’s economic miracle under the Reform and Opening-up policy. These brief words fully expose the dual dilemma of the Kuomintang’s current cross-strait discourse——one layer is called “wishful thinking,” and the other is called “a fond dream.” Cheng Li-wun wishfully acknowledged the Mainland’s economic miracle, whereas the Kuomintang’s line of abandoning democracy and solely pursuing peace will ultimately prove to be nothing but a fond dream.
I. Wishful Thinking: A One-Man Show Without an Echo
Cheng Li-wun affirmed the economic miracle of the Mainland. In itself, this is not an error——over the forty years of Reform and Opening-up, the Mainland’s material achievements have indeed been considerable. The problem, however, lies in the fact that this “acknowledgment” is unilateral and receives no echo. The Chinese Communist Party has never acknowledged, and is fundamentally unwilling to acknowledge, Taiwan’s democratic miracle.
This is the asymmetry of “acknowledgment,” and it is precisely where the real crux of cross-strait relations lies. Material and economic achievements are things Beijing is delighted to flaunt to the world; yet political civilization and progress——namely, the democratic miracle written by twenty-three million people with their ballots, peaceful transfers of power, and freedom of the press——are deliberately evaded, disparaged, and even stigmatized as “chaos.” One side is willing to face up to the other’s strengths, while the other side begrudges giving even a modicum of recognition. Cheng Li-wun’s goodwill has thus become a wishful one-man show: she bows to the mirror, under the illusion that someone on the other side is actually returning the courtesy.
The danger of wishful thinking lies not in the goodwill itself, but in misinterpreting the adversary’s silence as acquiescence, and misinterpreting the other side’s non-recognition as room for negotiation. When you are willing to acknowledge the achievements of others, while others refuse to acknowledge even the legitimacy of your existence, dialogue is no longer dialogue, but submission.
II. A Fond Dream: Peace Exchanged at the Cost of Abandoning Democracy
Cheng Li-wun proposed “saving the country through peace,” longing for cross-strait peace. Pursuing peace is originally the heart of a benevolent person and should be respected. However, there is a distinction between true and false peace: peace without democracy as a prerequisite is not peace, but capitulation.
It is worth revisiting a segment of history. Beijing in 1949 indeed “avoided war and obtained peace.” Yet that was not the peace of a victor, but a peace exchanged by the defending general Fu Zuoyi through laying down arms and surrendering the city. The city remained intact and the people were safe, but from then on, whose flag was planted atop the city walls? Whose will dominated that ancient capital? Practicing surrender in the name of disarmament, even if no shots were fired, was already a dictated peace forced under the city walls. Today, if someone, in the name of “peace,” asks Taiwan to make concessions and hand things over first before obtaining an equivalent democratic commitment, how is such “peace” any different from Beijing in 1949?
In the Tang Dynasty legendary tale “The Governor of the Southern Branch,” Chunyu Fen lay drunk under an old scholar tree and dreamed of entering the “Great Huai’an Kingdom,” where he married a princess, governed Nanke, became a general and prime minister, and enjoyed twenty years of honor and splendor; upon waking up, he only then realized that the so-called kingdom was nothing but an anthill under the scholar tree. Today’s Kuomintang, if it believes that merely by lowering the banner of democracy it can exchange for an equivalent, dignified, and enduring peaceful unification, is no different from Chunyu Fen’s dream of Huai’an: in the dream, there is a princess, there is splendor, and there is the decency of “One China, with respective interpretations,” but upon awakening, it is merely an anthill, and the flag atop the city walls has long been changed. The terror of a fond dream lies precisely in the fact that the dreamer is entirely unaware that they are dreaming.
III. Democracy is the True Prerequisite for Peace
To emerge from “wishful thinking” and “a fond dream,” there is only one path for the Kuomintang: to recognize once again that democracy is the prerequisite for peace, rather than the price of peace. Here, I would like to propose three points.
First, the Kuomintang must hold high its own core value——the Three Principles of the People. The Principle of Democracy itself clearly manifests that democracy is the prerequisite for peace. Having lost the banner of the Three Principles of the People, the Kuomintang loses the very foundation of its spiritual existence and life, and it also loses the qualification to stand up as an equal against the Communist Party on moral grounds, leaving it capable only of passively responding within the discourse set by the opponent.
Second, the Kuomintang bears an inescapable historical responsibility: to bring Taiwan’s democratic miracle back to Mainland China. It must make the Chinese Communist Party understand that integrating into global integration cannot merely be economic and trade-related, but must, moreover, accept universal values politically. Taiwan’s democracy should not be “unified” by the Mainland’s autocracy; quite the contrary, Taiwan’s democratic experience is precisely the spark and the signpost for the entire Chinese nation to march toward civilization.
Third, on cross-strait issues, the Kuomintang should return to its traditional position of “unifying China under the Three Principles of the People,” taking the initiative to present democratic demands and slogans to the opposite shore. Only by doing so can all Chinese people see clearly: exactly who, for the private interests of a single party, is obstructing the true unification of both sides of the strait. By placing “democracy” on the table, the initiative returns to the side holding high the banner of democracy; by evading it, the initiative will forever be grasped by the side that monopolizes power.
Conclusion
The hundred-year grievances and gratitude between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party are full of countless twists and turns. Yet what history will ultimately remember is not whose temporary concession exchanged for a few years of stability, but who, at the critical moment, stood on the side of the people and freedom. Wishful thinking cannot exchange for equality, and waking from a fond dream does not produce dignity. We sincerely hope that the Kuomintang will not look for its own Nanke Prefecture inside someone else’s anthill, but will instead be the guardian of Taiwan’s democracy, and moreover, the guide for the 1.4 billion mainland compatriots toward democracy. This, and only this, is the true “saving of the country through peace.”
(Author: Chairman of the Joint Headquarters of the China Democracy Party)
June 6, 2026
Editor: Li Jing Proofreader: Cheng Xiaoxiao Translator: Ge Bing
