Solving the Century Problem“Modern Transformation of China’s Traditional Confucianism”—A Mistake-Tolerant Democracy Perspective

The reason why Chinese scholars cannot bridge between Confucianism and democracy as a century problem since 1920s is that liberal democracy has two fundamental defects:Human beings born with wisdom have known rights before entering societies,which is contrary to Confucianism;separation between politics and religions has led to religious ceremony of confession far away from politics.Mistake-tolerant democracy whose right theory is the right to trial and error as an original right and mutual empowerment theory can overcome above defects.Liberty is divided into the right to trial and error as an original right in innovative fields which can be transferred by contract and unalienable liberties in non-innovative ones.The spirit and behavior of self-criticism to people like confession is a virtue which meets Confucian moral requirements of becoming a Saint and politician’s obligation required in mistake-tolerant democracy,which can solve the century problem at utmost.

The Crisis of Global COVID-19 Governance and the Challenge of Liberalism From Error-Tolerantism

The crisis of COVID-19 governance in Western countries has demonstrated inherent defects of the concept of freedom defined by liberalists.Error-Tolerantism integrating liberalism with China’s cultures divides the right to freedom into two categories:The right to freedom in the innovative fields is the right to be wrong as an original right;and those to freedom in the non-innovative fields are the subordinate rights.Rights come from mutual empowerment between people.The right theory of Error-Tolerantism called error-tolerant rights paradigm is the right to be wrong as an original right and mutual empowerment theory.The first defect of liberalism is that the Western media criticized China’s right to be wrong as an original right in the governance of COVID-19 by turning to the rights to freedom at the subordinate level in the context of non-COVID-19.The second defect is its failure to realize that the rational implementation of the right to be wrong as an original right will produce new subordinate rights.The number of people infected with COVID-19 in Wuhan dropping to zero indicates that new subordinate rights to freedom,such as keeping social distance,wearing face masks in public places,showing health codes,etc.,have been formed and confirmed.Error-Tolerantism holds that the definition of freedom by liberalists lacks dynamics,leading to the confusion in understanding the idea of freedom and various illegal actions endangering public security,such as traveling,gathering,or demonstrating without wearing masks during the pandemic.

The Root Cause of the Failure of American COVID-19 Governance Based on the Criticism of Liberal Democracy From Error-Tolerant Democracy

Liberal democracy cannot help America govern COVID-19 effectively for liberalism’s misunderstanding of the concept of liberty.Error-tolerantism divides liberty into the right to liberty in innovative fields,the right to be wrong as an original right,and the right to be right in non-innovative ones as sub-rights;rights come from mutual empowerment among people.The major defects of liberal democracy from the perspective of error-tolerant democracy constructed on error-tolerantism are as follows:The essence of election is to transfer people’s right to be wrong and corresponding right to be right to politicians,but the separation and balance of powers does not evaluate whether presidents,states,mayors,et al.,have exercised the power to be wrong reasonably,so that they could even abuse it in the COVID-19 governance,and did great harm to people’s human rights without any accountability or impeachment.Democratic governor’power to be wrong authorized by election was deprived by President Trump through issuing false information in the COVID-19 governance and encouraging people to protest against the anti-pandemic laws,which made liberal democracy in the United States threatened and COVID-19 out of control.

A Prerequisite for the Successful Governance of COVID-19 in the United States:Expansion of Liberal Democracy From Politics to Economy

The failure of COVID-19 governance in the United States of America is closely related to its economic inequality.According to the theory of error-tolerant democracy,after reflecting on the American financial crisis of 2008,liberty should be redefined from mutual empowerment under the background of regulation,which means that rights to liberty of entrepreneurs and financial capitalists in the public economy are empowered by the people,so they should empower and benefit the people,corresponding to regulation and redistribution respectively.During the COVID-19 pandemic,empowering and benefiting the people regarded as economic democracy has not been realized for neoliberal policies,leading to insufficient public funds to help citizens badly hurt by the disease.To restore the U.S.as the beacon of democracy,it should undertake the historical mission:expansion of liberal democracy from politics to economy so as to reduce unreasonable economic inequality and protect rights to life of more infected Americans.

Logic of China’s Rise:From List’s Model to List-Afa’s Error-Tolerant Model

Error-tolerantism developed from liberalism holds that national development generally considers four fundamental concepts,trial and error costs,trial and error competences,trial and error directions,and rights to be wrong.China’s rise is that state-owned enterprises basically bear trial and error costs of capital intensive industries,overcoming neoliberal defects;private companies mainly bear those of labor intensive industries,and foster new markets for capital intensive industries,learning neoliberal advantages.The Government develops economy through special economic zones for limited trial and error costs;good relations maintain between Chinese higher education and foreign scientific centers of the Soviet Union,Europe,the United States,etc.,and can help China improve trial and error competences.Privatization of small state-owned enterprises solves waste and inefficiency,and also participates in global competition to recover trial and error costs.The error-tolerant market economy based on error-tolerantism emphasizes that the powers to be wrong of entrepreneurs or financial units are empowered by the people,so they should benefit the people by reasonable redistribution.Error-tolerantism regards that China’s rise has developed List’s standard model to List-Afa’s error-tolerant model.