Nowadays, most
International Relations analysts acknowledge China’s potential
to achieve superpower status over the course of the next
decades due to its impressive economic growth, which was
triggered by Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms program
(inspired by theorists like Friedrich List).
Chinese power has also
increased considerably in military, geopolitical, trade and
financial affairs. Some experts have even contemplated the
possibility of China becoming the world’s greatest power,
overtaking the US. For instance, Goldman Sachs has predicted
that China’s GDP will surpass America’s sometime circa
2050............more
Freedom
of the Person
Slavery, serfdom, and all forms of human bondage must disappear.
Freedom
of the Mind
Unless a free people are educated -- taught to think intelligently
and plan wisely -- freedom usually does more harm than good.
The
reign of law.
Liberty can be enjoyed only when the will and whims of human
rulers are replaced by legislative enactments in accordance with
accepted fundamental law.
Freedom
of speech.
Representative government is unthinkable without freedom of all
forms of expression for human aspirations and opinions.
Security
of property.
No government can long endure if it fails to provide for the right
to enjoy personal property in some form. Man craves the right to
use, control, bestow, sell, lease, and bequeath his personal
property.
The
right of petition.
Representative government assumes the right of citizens to be
heard. The privilege of petition is inherent in free citizenship.
The
right to rule.
It is not enough to be heard; the power of petition must progress
to the actual management of the government.
Universal
suffrage.
Representative government presupposes an intelligent, efficient,
and universal electorate. The character of such a government will
ever be determined by the character and caliber of those who
compose it. As civilization progresses, suffrage, while remaining
universal for both sexes, will be effectively modified, regrouped,
and otherwise differentiated.
Control
of public servants.
No civil government will be serviceable and effective unless the
citizenry possess and use wise techniques of guiding and
controlling officeholders and public servants.
Intelligent
and trained representation.
The survival of democracy is dependent on successful
representative government; and that is conditioned upon the
practice of electing to public offices only those individuals who
are technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal,
and morally fit.
Only by such provisions can government of the people, by the
people, and for the people be preserved.