ABSTRACT
Jiang Menglin completed a PhD. thesis on Chinese education under John Dewey at Columbia, wherein he advocated combining the best elements of Chinese culture with certain Western ideals, among which he included the safeguarding of individual rights. Two years later, a similar group tried again, signing onto 'Our Political Proposals', a document written by Hu Shi. 'Our Political Proposals' is less concrete than the 'Manifesto'; rather than calling for specific regulations to be rescinded because they violate people's freedom, it calls in general for the protection of the freedom of the individual and suggests a framework within which a 'good government', which would have the interests of the citizens in mind, could be implemented. In the history of human freedom, there is no country where the people have not paid for it with their blood. Without a people who are willing to struggle for it, it is impossible for true freedom to appear.
