Translator’s Introduction
Many prominent Taiwanese authors support complete reunification with the mainland. However if you only read English you wouldn’t know this from what’s available in the translation market. Taiwanese authors who support reunification rarely if ever get their views translated into English. Now that Taiwan is in the news more and more, I want to do my small part toward changing that fact.
Chen Yingzhen (1937-2016) was born in Zhunan Township, Taiwan. He died in Beijing. He was a founder and the first chairman of the China Unification Alliance, which pushes to reunite Taiwan with mainland China. He kept up excellent relations with the Communist Party of China, and on many occasions got in trouble with Taiwanese authorities for promoting Marxism, even as late as the year 2000. On blog posts and articles found on mainland search engine Baidu he is regularly described as a patriot.
This essay, “The America You Love Is Sick,” was published in 1987, but it reads like it could have been written yesterday. Chen calls on his fellow Taiwanese to abandon their adoration of the USA and seek “national unity” for all of China. While America may seem like a beacon of advanced progress worthy of emulation, Chen argues, it is actually a deeply sick and struggling society. He describes many “symptoms” America is experiencing (which sound eerily like 2024 America), and then goes on to diagnose the US (and the rest of the West) with “Advanced Country Syndrome.” Likewise, he diagnoses Taiwan’s political class with “America Adoration Syndrome.”
Anyone who would like to read the original essay in simplified Chinese characters can do so by clicking here. I hope you enjoy this translation and I welcome all feedback in the comments below.
The America You Love is Sick
by Chen Yingzhen, November 26, 1987
Orginally published in the Independent Evening News “Culture Forum”
Over the past two years, the United States has begun to impose quotas on Taiwanese exports, restricting the amount of goods that Taiwan can export to America. The US has also forced Taiwan to buy its tobacco and alcohol. Additionally, they’ve forced the Taiwan dollar to appreciate sharply against the US dollar, making Taiwanese exports more expensive for US consumers, and thus making it more difficult for Taiwanese businesses to sell their products in the United States. In the meantime they have pressured Taiwan to open its market to more and more US products, while also having revoked our preferential trade status.
The United States has suddenly transformed from a wealthy and generous big brother into a stingy and nitpicking uncle. This transformation is in fact a symptom of the United States’ inability to control its own enormous budget deficit and inflation. It faces continuously rising external debt, persistent unemployment problems, a stagnation of labor supply, low productivity, the deterioration of public safety, and a lack of trust in traditional moral and social systems.
“Advanced Country Syndrome”
It is still difficult to determine whether these socio-economic symptoms are temporary discomforts or whether they will become a chronic disease. Regardless, these symptoms speak loud and clear: the United States is sick, and the disease is called "Advanced Country Syndrome” (ACS). Inflation, economic slowdown, political burnout, rising crime rates...these symptoms also appeared in West Germany (after 1980), Italy (after 1970), France (1967), and in the Netherlands and Sweden.
Emergency Measures Insufficient
Just as the same disease can have different symptoms in different patients with different physiques, ACS also manifests itself differently in different capitalist countries. We can observe the American strain, the British strain, the French strain, and the Italian strain. In May 1968, the infamous civil unrest that gripped France caused wages to increase at a rate higher than national industrial productivity, and the country therefore lost its competitiveness in the international market. In the 1970s, the franc was under pressure from speculation and it too lost its strong appeal 0n the market. In the Netherlands, soaring oil prices caused the value of Dutch currency to soar, which dealt a heavy blow to its export industry, the foundation of the Dutch economy. Sweden's world-renowned social welfare spending has resulted in an undisciplined labor force. A complete collapse of any system of ethics, a lack of any sense of purpose in life, rampant alcoholism, and a deepening sense of alienation are all symptoms of the Swedish strain of ACS.
Of course, some people would also say that political dictatorship, foreign debt, and economic stagnation are symptoms of “Backward Country Syndrome.” Regardless, we should not forget that there are many diseases causing suffering throughout the world, such as hegemonism, the arms race, nuclear energy, the consolidation and expansion of the nuclear weapons threat, and neo-colonialism.
The first country to suffer a bout of ACS was the British Empire. The United Kingdom experienced three major pound crises in 1961, 1964, and 1967. Each time such a crisis occurred, the British government adopted a tight monetary policy, but it was ultimately unable to solve the underlying causes of the crises: a large international balance of payments deficit, the inflationary nature of the British economy, and the overall decline of British industry and commerce.
The Adoration of America: Deep Roots
Some British researchers believe that Britain's problems stem from its high spending on social welfare programs that cover citizens "from cradle to grave.” They blame the low morale of individuals under this social welfare system and the constant strikes by powerful unions demanding higher wages in the face of inflation.
In fact, after World War II, Britain's vast colonies and dependencies around the world began to gain independence. Britain’s strength was greatly weakened by World War II. It was unable to suppress the anti-imperialist struggles of its colonial peoples in the postwar global confrontation between the East and the West. It therefore handed over the task of anti-communism and suppressing national liberation movements to a post-war upstart, the United States. In addition, due to lack of funds, Britain fell far behind in production and management technology during the twenty years of Western capitalist prosperity after the war. British post-war capitalism failed to revitalize itself. This put the "empire on which the sun never sets" on the path of decline.
It may be too early to say that the United States is in a state of total decline today. In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, I was in elementary school. I recall from that time to the end of the 1960s the image of the United States in Taiwan was portrayed like a tall, shining statue. This was true in every field: politics, the military, the economy, and culture. This image of the US as a tall, shining object of adoration has in fact always been deeply embedded in all the layers of Taiwan’s ideology, impacting our understanding of the world and our culture. To this day, both the ruling and opposition parties are still suffering from “America Adoration Syndrome." A good illustration of this is the astonishing lack of criticism of American hegemony and how it has affected culture, ideology, knowledge, and politics in Taiwan over the past 40 years.
Not Living in the Shadow of Others; Seeking One’s Own Development Path
Taiwan’s ruling and opposition parties suffer from America Adoration Syndrome, and meanwhile the United States suffers from Advanced Country Syndrome. Though Taiwan has seen massive economic growth, we’re in an abusive-parent-abused-child situation that has grown more and more embarrassing over the past 25 years. Imagine by way of metaphor a son who has made money in the city and his authoritarian father who has squandered his family’s wealth in the countryside.
Taiwan needs to develop a more accurate and more people-centered view of the United States. Without shaking off the American Adoration Complex that has ingrained itself in all aspects of our Cold War-era culture and history, it will be impossible to work toward China's national unity, national peace, and national self-development.
Thanks Chet, for a worthwhile historical translation. Chen's insights - and no-nonsense analysis are so pertinent to the situation today. - John B Turner