Editing Hu Shih (section)

== Political views ==
{{Liberalism in China|People}}
{{New Culture Movement}}

=== Individualism, liberalism, and democracy ===
Unlike many of his contemporaries who later joined the Socialist camp, liberalism and democracy were Hu's political beliefs throughout his life. He firmly believed that the world as a whole was heading toward democracy, despite the changing political landscape.{{sfn|Chou|2012|p=288}}<ref>Hu, Shih (1947), 我们必须选择我们的方向 (We Must Choose Our Own Direction).</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2025}} Hu defines democracy as a lifestyle in which everyone's value is recognized, and everyone has the freedom to develop a lifestyle of individualism.<ref>Hu, Shih (1955), 四十年来中国文艺复兴运动留下的抗暴消毒力量—中国共产党清算胡适思想的历史意义.</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2025}} For Hu, individual achievement does not contradict societal good. In fact, individual achievement contributes to overall social progress, a view that he distinguishes from the so-called "selfish individualism."<ref>Hu, Shih (1918). 易卜生主义 (Ibsenisim).</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2025}} In his essay, "Immortality{{snd}}My Religion", Hu stresses that although individuals eventually perish physically, one's soul and the effect one has on society are immortal.<ref>Hu, Shih (1919). Immortality{{snd}}My Religion, ''New Youth'' ''6.2''.</ref> Therefore, Hu's individualism is a lifestyle in which people are independent and yet social.{{sfn|Chou|2012|p=290}}

Hu sees individual contributions as crucial and beneficial to the system of democracy. In "A Second Discussion on Nation-Building and Autocracy" ({{lang|zh|再談建國與專治}}), Hu comments that an autocratic system needs professionals to manage it while democracy relies on the wisdom of the people. When different people's lived experiences come together, no elite politician is needed for coordination, and therefore democracy is, in fact, easy to practice with people who lack political experience. He calls democracy "naive politics" ({{lang|zh|幼稚政治}}), a political system that can help cultivate those who participate in it.<ref>"[https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E5%BE%9E%E4%B8%80%E9%BB%A8%E5%88%B0%E7%84%A1%E9%BB%A8%E7%9A%84%E6%94%BF%E6%B2%BB 从一党到无党的政治 – 维基文库，自由的图书馆]". ''zh.wikisource.org''. Retrieved 15 April 2019.</ref>

Hu also equates democracy with freedom, a freedom that is made possible by tolerance. In a democratic system, people should be free from any political persecution as well as any public pressure. In his 1959 essay "Tolerance and Freedom", Hu Shih stressed the importance of tolerance and claimed that "tolerance is the basis of freedom". In a democratic society, the existence of opposition must be tolerated. Minority rights are respected and protected. People must not destroy or silence the opposition.{{sfn|Chou|2012|pp=290–292}}

==== The Chinese root of democracy ====
A large portion of Hu Shih's scholarship in his later years is dedicated to finding a Chinese root for democracy and liberalism. Many of his writings, including "Historic Tradition for a Democratic China",{{clarify|reason=Is the word "Historic" part of the title? If not, it's unclear what it's doing here.|date=May 2019}} "The Right to Doubt in Ancient Chinese Thought", "Authority and Freedom in the Ancient Asian World" make a similar claim that the democratic spirit is always present within the Chinese tradition.<ref>{{Cite book |title=English Writings of Hu Shih |first=Shih |last=Hu |year=2013 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-642-31180-2 |editor-last=Chou |editor-first=Chih-P'ing |series=China Academic Library |location=Berlin |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-31181-9}}</ref> He claimed that Chinese tradition included:

# A democratized social structure with an equal inheritance system among sons and the right to rebel under oppressive regimes.
# Widespread accessibility of political participation through civil service exams.
# Intragovernmental criticism and censorial control formalized by governmental institutions and the Confucian tradition of political criticism.

=== Constitutionalism and human rights movement ===
In 1928, Hu along with [[Wen Yiduo]], [[Chen Yuan (historian)|Chen Yuan]], [[Liang Shih-chiu]], and [[Xu Zhimo]] founded the monthly journal ''Crescent Moon'', named after [[Tagore]]'s prose verse. In March 1929, he learned from Shanghai Special Representatives of National Party Chen De.

Hu criticized and rejected [[Sun Yat-sen]]'s claim that people are incapable of self-rule{{fact|date=March 2025}}<!--Did he claim that?--> and considered democracy itself a form of political education. The legitimacy and the competency of people participating in the political process comes from their lived experience. Sun's government also proposed to punish any "anti-revolutionary" without due process.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

Hu wrote an article in ''Crescent Moon'' titled "Human Rights and Law" ({{lang|zh|人權與約法}}). In the article, Hu called for the establishment of a written constitution that protects the rights of citizens, especially from the ruling government. The government must be held accountable to the constitution. Later in "When Can We Have Constitution{{snd}}A Question for ''The Outline of National Reconstruction''" ({{lang|zh|我們什麼時候才可有憲法?—對於《建國大綱》的疑問}}), Hu criticized the Nationalist government for betraying the ideal of Constitutionalism in ''The Outline of National Reconstruction''.

=== Criticism of the Communist Party after 1949 ===
[[File:Hu Shih and Chiang Kai-shek at Academia Sinica 19580410.jpg|thumb|Hu Shih (left) and [[Chiang Kai-shek]] at [[Academia Sinica]], Taipei, April 1958|left]]
In the early 1950s, the Chinese Communist Party launched a years-long campaign criticizing Hu's thoughts. In response, Hu published many essays in English attacking the political legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party.{{sfn|Chou|2012|p=202}}

In the writing field, [[Lu Xun]] and Hu represented two different political parties. The political differences between the Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party led to significantly different evaluations of the two writers. As a supporter of the Communist Party, Lu Xun was hailed by its leader [[Mao Zedong]] as "the greatest and most courageous fighter of the new cultural army". By contrast, Hu Shih was criticized by Communist-leaning historians as "the earliest, the most persistent and most uncompromising enemy of Chinese Marxism and socialist thought". The different evaluations of the two different writers show the complexity{{clarify|date=March 2025}}<!--What is the word supposed to mean in this context? This sounds like a non-native speaker's mistake.--> between two different political parties in modern China.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=Two Versions of Modern Chinese History: a Reassessment of Hu Shi and Lu Xun |year=2020 |title=Remembering May Fourth |pages=75–94 |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/9789004424883_005 |isbn=978-9004424883 |last1=Chou |first1=Chih-p'ing |s2cid=216388563}}</ref>

Hu's opposition to the Chinese Communist Party was an ideological conflict. As a supporter of Pragmatism, Hu believed that social changes could only happen incrementally. Revolution or any ideologies that claim to solve social problems once and for all are not possible. Such a perspective was present in his early writing, as in the ''problem'' versus ''isms'' debate. He quotes John Dewey: "progress is not a wholesale matter, but a retail job, to be contracted for and executed in section".

Hu also opposed communism because of his ideological belief in individualism. Hu affirms the individual's right as independent from the collective. The individual has the right to develop freely and diversely without political suppression in the name of uniformity. He writes in "The Conflict of Ideologies":

{{blockquote|"The desire for uniformity leads to suppression of individual initiative, to the dwarfing of personality and creative effort, to intolerance, oppression, and slavery, and, worst of all, to intellectual dishonesty and moral hypocrisy."<ref>Hu, Shih (November 1941). "The Conflicts of Ideologies", in ''The Annuals of American Academy of Political and Social Science'', Vol. 28, pp. 32–34.</ref>}}
In contrast to a Marxist vision of history, Hu's conception of history is pluralistic and particular. In his talk with American economist [[Charles A. Beard]], recorded in his diary, Hu believed the making of history is only coincidental. Since he is a proponent of reformism, pluralism, individualism, and skepticism, Hu's philosophy is irreconcilable with Communist ideology. Hu's later scholarship around the Chinese root of liberalism and democracy is consistent with his anti-CCP writings. In a later manuscript titled "Communism, Democracy, and Cultural Pattern", Hu constructs three arguments from Chinese intellectual history, especially from Confucian and Taoist traditions, to combat the authoritative rule of the Chinese Communist Party:

{{blockquote|
# An almost anarchistic aversion of all governmental interference.
# A long tradition of love for freedom and fighting for freedom – especially for intellectual freedom and religious freedom, but also for the freedom of political criticism.
# A traditional exaltation of the individual's right to doubt and question things – even the most sacred things.<ref>Hu Shih, "Communism, Democracy, and Cultural Pattern."</ref>
}}

Therefore, Hu regards the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party as not only "unhistorical", but also "un-Chinese".

=== Global policy ===
Along with [[Albert Einstein]], Hu was one of the sponsors of the [[Peoples' World Convention]] (PWC), also known as Peoples' World Constituent Assembly (PWCA), which took place from 1950 to 1951 at Palais Electoral in Geneva, Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Einstein |first1=Albert |url=http://archive.org/details/einsteinonpeace00eins |title=Einstein on peace |last2=Nathan |first2=Otto |last3=Norden |first3=Heinz |year=1968 |publisher=Schocken |via=Internet Archive |pages=539, 670, 676}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=[Carta] 1950 oct. 12, Genève, [Suiza] [a] Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile [manuscrito] Gerry Kraus. |url=http://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/623/w3-article-137193.html |website=BND: Archivo del Escritor}}</ref>