｜ are prohibited from taking improper disciplinary actions, including arbitrarily interfering with gatherings, demonstrations, and the content of people’s demands. Another collective means of freedom of expression, “freedom of association” means that a group of people has the right to freely form a “sustained” organization based on common ideas or goals, such as political parties, art collectives, academic associations, social outreach teams, and business associations, in order to leverage collective strength to achieve goals faster. Article 21 states that “ (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine Film permit of the Government Information Office, Executive Yuan from the 1960s. Courtesy of: Kao Chuan-chi 12 elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.” China’s Half-Century Long Dream of Democratic Constitutionalism Since the late Qing era, China was constantly engulfed in war, with imperialist powers vying to carve up China. Immediately after, the country descended into a civil war, with warlords dividing up the nation, and Japanese invasions came next. From these hardships emerged thinkers who pondered what would be best for the future of China. At the same time, there was no centralized and unified government after the collapse of the Qing empire. Several factions arose and, thanks to Western influences, many intellectual elites developed dreams of democratic constitutional- Film permit for the 1975 Republic of China News Vol. 1125. Courtesy of: Kao Chuan-chi Chapter 1 ism. It is worth mentioning that after the end of World War I, under the League of Nations, the Republic of China (ROC) actively participated in the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, and the Permanent Court of International Justice, as well as attended activities of international organizations related to human rights. After the war, the ROC became one of the founding members of the United Nations. P. C. Chang, then representative of the Republic of China in the United Nations Security Council and vice chairman of the Human Rights Commission, was well-respected by fellow members of the Commission for his knowledge of human rights and greatly influenced the content drafted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With a background in education, P. C. Chang advocated conscience and rationality as the bases of human rights. To avoid the monopolization of Western theology, he cleverly provided an Asian perspective. He also played a key role in establishing the universality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The constitutional dream of Chinese intellectual elites stemmed from an admiration of democratic developed countries in North America and Europe. The elites also looked to Japan, a fellow Asian country that seemed to have been reborn after establishing constitutional monarchy (the Meiji Constitution) in 1889. There was an attempt to do the same in the late Qing era, but unfortunately, it ended in failure. After the fall of the Qing dynasty, different political forces successively proposed no fewer than 10 different drafts for a constitution in order to secure the political moral high ground. Regarding freedom of speech, when Dr. Sun Yatsen proclaimed the “10 Great Faults of the Qing Government” in 1904, he mentioned “suppression of our intellectual development; prohibition of the freedom of speech”. Like liberalism scholar Yin Hai-kuang ｜ Martial Law: Derailing From International Human Rights Trends once said, this was the “official start of China’s struggle for human rights in modern times”. In another example, when Sun Yat-sen took office as the provisional president in 1912, the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China passed by the provisional congress had articles regarding human rights that covered popular sovereignty, personal freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, property rights, the right to vote, and the right to stand as a candidate. However, since China did not have universal education at the time, the general population remained uneducated, so human rights awareness only flourished among elites who had the chance to learn about Western ideas and thought independently. Afterwards, years of war and chaos and political forces that refused to cooperate, even putting selfish gains first, made the road to democratic constitutionalism extremely difficult. After World War II, political negotiations were made and constitutional assemblies were held. Even though the Chinese Communist Party and the China Democratic League refused to attend, the Constitution of the Republic of China was finally passed at the end of 1946 and adopted on December 25, 1947, ahead of the passing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is a testament to how eager those in both ruling and opposition parties were to establish a democratic constitutional government. However, the tide turned with the Chinese Civil War. Ironically, the first action of the National Assembly, which had just been established according to the constitution, was to pass the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion, Betrayers Punishment Act in May 1948. As a result, many important articles for separation of powers in the Constitution of the Republic China, which had been adopted for less than six months, was frozen in order to expand the power of the president. 13