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8/13/2019 China Goes Its Own Way
1/11
MARTIN JACQUES GORDON CHANG WEI JINGSHENG
NATHAN GARDELS DANIEL BELL
Buoyed by its creditors hold on the United States and its ability to withstand the
harsh winds of recession blowing from across the Pacific, China has graduated in
its own mind from an emerging economy to a world power. From their confronta-
tion with Google to their renewed repression of dissidents to their dissing of
President Obama, Chinas leaders clearly feel that the time has come for the world
to accomodate China, not vice-versa.
Is the West ready for this new reality? Is Chinas new arrogance
well-founded, or is it going to be the next bubble to burst? As it
moves beyond the primary stage of socialism is it ready to open
up politically?
In this section, some top China scholars, one of Chinas most
well-known dissidents and a former US spy chief discuss these issues.
China Goes
Its Own Way
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From Communism to Confucianism:
Chinas Alternative to Liberal Democracy
DANIEL A. BELL is professor of political philosophy at Tsinghua University in Beijing and
the author ofChinas New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society.
beijingFour decades ago, it would have been suicidal to say a good word about
Confucius in Beijing. Confucius was the reactionary enemy, and all Chinese were
encouraged to struggle against him. Chairman Mao himself was photographed on the
cover of a revolutionary newspaper that announced the desecration of Confuciuss
grave in Qufu. My own university was a hotbed of extreme leftism.
How times have changed. Today, the Chinese Communist Party approves a film
about Confucius starring the handsome leading man Chow Yun-Fat. The master is
depicted as an astute military commander and teacher of humane and progressive
values, with a soft spot for female beauty. What does this say about Chinas politi-
cal future? Confuciusbombed at the box office, leading many to think that the revival
of Confucianism will go the same way as the anti-Confucius campaigns in the
Cultural Revolution.
But perhaps its just a bad movie. Confucius received the kiss of death when it went
head-to-head against the blockbuster Avatar. A vote for Confucius was seen as a vote
against the heroic blue creatures from outer space. In the long term, however,
Confucian revivalists may be on the right side of history.
In the Cultural Revolution, Confucius was often just a label used to attack politi-
cal enemies. Today, Confucianism serves a more legitimate political function; it can
help to provide a new moral foundation for political rule in China. Communism has
lost the capacity to inspire the Chinese, and there is growing recognition that its
replacement needs to be grounded at least partly in Chinas own traditions. As the
dominant political tradition in China, Confucianism is the obvious alternative.
The party has yet to re-label itself the Chinese Confucian Party, but it has moved
closer to an official embrace of Confucianism. The 2008 Olympics highlighted
Confucian themes, quoting The Analects of Confucius at the opening ceremonies and
playing down any references to Chinas experiment with communism. Cadres at the
newly built Communist Party school in Shanghai proudly tell visitors that the main
building is modeled on a Confucian scholars desk.Abroad, the government has been
symbolically promoting Confucianism via branches of the Confucius Institute, a
Chinese-language and cultural center similar to the Alliance Franaise.
Of course, there is resistance as well. Elderly cadres, still influenced by Maoist
antipathy to tradition, condemn efforts to promote ideologies outside a rigid Marxist
The party has yet to
re-label itself the Chinese
Confucian Party, but it has
moved closer to an official
embrace of Confucianism.
SPRING 201018
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framework. But the younger cadres in their 40s and 50s tend to support such efforts,
and time is on their side. Its easy to forget that the 76-million-strong Chinese
Communist Party is a large and diverse organization. The party itself is becoming
more meritocraticit now encourages high-performing students to joinand the
increased emphasis on educated cadres is likely to generate more sympathy for
Confucian values.
But the revival of Confucianism is not just government-sponsored. On the con-
trary, the government is also reacting to developments outside its control.There has
been a resurgence of interest in Confucianism among academics and in the Chinese
equivalent of civil society. The renewed interest is driven partly by normative con-
cerns.Thousands of educational experiments around the country promote the teach-
ing of Confucian classics to young children; the assumption is that better training in
SPRING 2010 19
The biggest capitalist class in China has the least percentage of the population, yet
it is the group receiving the most benefit from the current regime. However, some
people within this class have also realized the inevitability that the Chinese
Communist Party cannot carry on much further. A group of men of letters fed by
these people is therefore designing various schemes for the post-Communist era.
There is a common element of interest with the big capitalist class that is
shared by the poor and petty bourgeoisie: democracy and human rights. So
democracy and human rights are on the minds of most of the Chinese people.
However, the democracy advocated by the different classes is different in nature.
This is why the argument over the different kinds of democracy in Chinas future
has been getting more and more intensified over the last few years.
One faction thinks that the democracy means that every person in all classes
will participate while another faction emphasizes a democracy ruled by the elite.
Generally speaking, the people who have power, influence and university
educations are more likely to lean toward a democracy ruled by the elite. The rea-
son is very simple; because they themselves are the elite. It is human nature that
people want to hold power and influence in their own hands. If complete control
is not possible, then the inclusive group could be expanded further. But overall,
the closer they hold power to themselves, the better.
For the same reason, the poor people who constitute Chinas vast majority and are
far away from power and influence dont want power controlled by the elite minority.
Thus, for me, the essence of a democratic politics is really a politics that is
good for the pooror at the least a politics not aligned against the poor.
WEI JINGSHENG
Elite
Democracy
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the humanities improves the virtue of the learner. More controversially because its
still too sensitive to publicly discuss such questions in mainland ChinaConfucian
thinkers put forward proposals for constitutional reform aiming to humanize Chinas
political system.
AN UPHILL STRUGGLE | Yet, the problem is not just the Chinese govern-ment. It can be an uphill struggle to convince people in Western countries that
Confucianism can offer a progressive and humane path to political reform in China.
SPRING 201020
The following excerpt is taken from Chinas New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday
Life in a Changing Society by Daniel A. Bell (Princeton University Press, 2009).
BEIJING Does Confucianism pose a challenge to Western-style liberal democ-
racy? There are reasons to think that they are compatible, if not mutually rein-
forcing. Many theorists argue that they are compatible, such as Sor-Hoon Tan in
his book Confucian Democracy. In political practice, they have often proved to be
compatible: Wang Juntao, a leading Chinese dissident who was jailed for five
years over the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, argues that many of the
key figures in various democracy movements in contemporary Chinese history
drew inspiration from Confucian values. Such influential early-twentieth-century
figures as Sun Yat-sen, Kang Youwei, and Liang Quichao received a Confucian
education, and they argue that democratic institutions such as parliamentary
systems, elections, and equal rights are natural extensions of Confucianism.
Jiang Qing, the contemporary Confucian intellectual, contrasts his
Confucian theory with Western-style liberal democracy and argues that
Confucianism is more appropriate for China. But his institutional proposals take
on board certain liberal assumptions such as freedom of religion: He argues for
the establishment of Confucianism as a state religion and compares the system
to state religions in the United Kingdom and Sweden with other religions not
being prohibited.
Even official sources point to the possibility of reconciling Confucianismwith liberal democracy. On October 12, 2006, the newspaper Nanfang Zhoumou
(Southern Weekly)perhaps the leading intellectual newspaper in China
published an editorial on the meaning of the term harmonious society. It
invokes the quote in the Analects of Confucius that exemplary persons seek
harmony, not conformity. Then it breaks down the characters in the term
harmony, with the explanation that the first literally refers to grain into the
mouth, meaning people and social security, and the second refers to everything
A Challenge
to Western-
Style Liberal
Democracy?
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Why does the revival of Confucianism so often worry Westerners? One reason may
be a form of self-love. For most of the 20th century, Chinese liberals and Marxists
engaged in a totalizing critique of their own heritage and looked to the West for inspi-
ration. It may have been flattering for Westernerslook, they want to be just like us!
but there is less sympathy now that Chinese are taking pride in their own traditions
for thinking about social and political reform. But more understanding and a bit of
open-mindedness can take care of that problem.
For most of the 20th century,
Chinese liberals and
Marxists looked to the West
for inspiration. There is less
sympathy now that Chinese
are taking pride in their own
traditions for thinking about
social and political reform.
SPRING 2010 21
can be spoken, meaning democracy and the freedom of speech. The editorial
goes on to say that the welfare state requires democracy and the rule of law as
an underlying framework.
Confucian emphasis on meritocracyrule by the most talented and public-
spirited members of the communitymight seem to conflict with democracy,
but there have been institutional proposals to combine the two desiderata. In a
manuscript titledA Faith in Life and Kingly Way of Politics (unpublished in main-
land China), Jiang Qing puts forward an interesting proposal for a tricameral leg-
islature that includes representation for peoples representatives, Confucian
elites chosen by competitive examinations that test for knowledge of the
Confucian classics, and elites entrusted with the task of cultural continuity. The
last proposalthat elites would include descendants of Confuciuss family
stands about as much chance of being realized as proposals for reinstituting
more seats for hereditary aristocrats in the British House of Lords. But the pos-
sibility of a bicameral legislature, with one political institution composed of dem-
ocratic leaders chosen by free and fair competitive examinations, and another of
meritocratic leaders chosen by free and fair examinations, is more consistent with
commitments to Confucian meritocracy and modern-day democracy.
But which institution should have priority? Here things become more com-
plicated. At the local level, all sides in the debate recognize that leaders should be
democratically elected. The Chinese government introduced direct village elec-tions in 1988 to maintain social order and combat corruption of leaders, and they
have since occurred in some 700,000 villages across China, reaching 75 percent
of the nations 1.3 billion people. Of course, such elections are not free of prob-
lems. There have been worries about the quality of decision-making and the
extent to which local elections really curb the power of local cadres and wealthy
elites. In response, the government has backed experiments with deliberative
continued on next page
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A Challenge
to Western-
Style Liberal
Democracy?
(continued)
Another reason may be that the revival of Confucianism is thought to be associat-
ed with the revival of Islamic fundamentalism and its anti-Western tendencies.
Perhaps the revival of closed-minded and intolerant Christian fundamentalism also
comes to mind. But the revival of Confucianism in China is not so opposed to liberal
social ways (other than extreme individualistic lifestyles, in which the good life is
sought mainly outside social relationships). What it does propose is an alternative to
Western political ways, and that may be the main worry. But this worry stems from an
SPRING 201022
democracy at the local level designed to address such problems. Such experi-
ments hold the promise of aiding the democratic education process and secur-
ing more fair outcomes from that process. Once democracy becomes institution-
alized at the local level, it can then be further extended to township, city, and
provincial levels.
But empowering democratically elected leaders at the national level is far
more controversial. It is one thing to debate and vote on the price of water and
electricity and the relocation of farmers one expects that local citizens with the
detailed knowledge required for making choices that intimately affect their daily
lives are best placed to make such judgments. It is another to ask voters to make
informed judgments about empirically complex issues such as settling inter-
provincial disputes or assessing the trade-off between economic growth and safe-
guarding the environment for future generations, the sorts of issues that may be
only distantly related to their lives. And what about asking the people to make
life-and-death decisions such as whether or not to go to war or how best to curb
virulent contagious infections? With respect to decision-making at the national
level, one hopes not only for fair representation and local solidarity, but also for
deliberators with the ability to process large amounts of information as well as
sensitivity to the interests of different kinds of people, including foreigners and
future generations that are affected by national policies.
It is not just the government that balks at the prospect of turning over thelevers of the Chinese state to 800 million residents with primary-school educa-
tion. Few academics teaching in mainland Chinese universitiesincluding those
who call themselves liberalsfavor countrywide democracy within the next
decade or so (and discussions are completely free in the context of alcohol-fueled
dinners with friends). The influential intellectual Yu Keping titled his recent book
Democracy Is a Good Thing, but the lead essay argues that our construction of
political democracy must be closely integrated with the history, culture, tradition
8/13/2019 China Goes Its Own Way
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honest mistake: the assumption that less support for Western-style democracy means
increased support for authoritarianism. In China, packaging the debate in terms of
democracy versus authoritarianism crowds out possibilities that appeal to
Confucian political reformers.
Confucian reformers generally favor more freedom of speech in China. What
they question is democracy in the sense of Western-style competitive elections as the
mechanism for choosing the countrys most powerful rulers. One clear problem withIn China, packaging the debate
in terms of democracy versus
authoritarianism crowds out
possibilities that appeal to
Confucian political reformers.
SPRING 2010 23
and existing conditions in our nation. In practice, it means that elections should
be extended all the way up to the choice of representatives for the National
Peoples Congress, but only from candidates screened by the party.
Even those critical of the lack of commitment to democracy among contem-
porary Chinese intellectuals may betray certain assumptions that are difficult to
reconcile with rule by elected politicians. Cai Dingjian of the Chinese University
of Law and Politics has written an essay (in Chinese) titled In Defense of
Democracy! A Response to Contemporary Anti-democratic Theory. The essay is
an important academic and political contribution to the debate on democratiza-
tion in China. Cai argues forcefully against some of the most frequent objections
to democratic rule in Chinathat it benefits only majorities, that it undermines
stability and economic development, and that it contributes to corruption. To
support the view that the quality of the people does not undermine the
prospects of democracy, however, he draws on Singapore founding father Lee
Kuan Yews point that Singapores Chinese immigrants (largely from poor or
undereducated backgrounds) have succeeded in establishing a good society
based on the rule of law. What Singaporean Chinese can do, mainland Chinese
can do, whether its the rule of law or democracy.
But Singapores rule of law relies on legal punishments that control
detailed aspects of everyday life: as the joke goes, Singapore is a fine city. And
Singapore wasnt anything close to democracy at Chinas level of wealth and edu-cation (the same is true of Taiwan and South Korea). Today, there are elections,
but Singapore-style democracy means overwhelming dominance of the ruling
Peoples Action Party along with harsh punishments for opposition politicians
that range from public humiliation to bankruptcy and exile.
Even more worrisome, Lee himself is perhaps the most notorious defender of
rule by meritocratically selected political elites, a view he supports with dubious
continued on next page
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A Challenge
to Western-
Style Liberal
Democracy?
(continued)
eugenic theories. Lees view is that education wont suffice; there will always be a
minority of people endowed with superior innate intelligence (such as his own
son, the current prime minister of Singapore, and other family members that con-
trol key levers of the economy), and they should be societys leaders. And the rulers
themselves get to decide on who counts as the best and brightest. This is not,
to put it mildly, the kind of model supporters of democracy should endorse.
So for the foreseeable future, it is highly unlikely that democratic rule at the
national level will emerge in China. The proposal most likely to garner support
from government officials and intellectual elites who are best positioned to think
about and implement political reform is for a strong, meritocratically chosen leg-
islature that has constitutional priority over the democratically elected house. The
proposal might gain additional support if it incorporates the following features:
The deputies in the meritocratic house are chosen (by examinations) for
seven- or eight-year terms and there are strict penalties for corruption.
The examinations test for the Confucian classics, basic economics, world
history, and foreign language, and they are set by an independent board of aca-
demics randomly chosen from Chinas universities that is sequestered from the
rest of society during the examination process.
There is substantial deliberation before decisions are taken in the merito-
cratic house, and most debates are televised and transmitted to the public on
the Web. The national democratic legislatures main function is to transmit the peo-
ples (relatively uniformed) preferences to the meritocratic house. At the provin-
cial, township, city, and village levels, the top decision-makers are chosen by
means of competitive elections, and decisions are taken in deliberation forums.
Freedom of the press is basically secure, and there are many opportunities
to raise objections and present grievances to deputies at the national level.
Farfetched? Its no less so than scenarios that envision a transition to
SPRING 201024
one person, one vote is that equality ends at the boundaries of the political commu-
nity; those outside are neglected. The national focus of the democratically elected
political leaders is assumed; they are meant to serve only the community of voters.
Even democracies that work well tend to focus on the interests of citizens and neg-
lect the interests of foreigners. But political leaders, especially leaders of big coun-
tries such as China, make decisions that affect the rest of the world (consider global
warming), and so they need to consider the interests of the rest of the world.
8/13/2019 China Goes Its Own Way
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Western-style liberal democracy (because both scenarios assume an end to one-
party rule), and it answers the main worry about the transition to democracy: that
it translates into rule by uneducated people.
As more Chinese gain access to education, and democratic values and prac-
tices become more entrenched, the democratic legislature can be empowered
relative to the meritocratic house. Strong democrats may prefer to abolish the
meritocratic house in due courseor at least reduce it to an advisory and sym-
bolic function if it helps to strengthen the democratic systembut there may
be a case for more permanent empowerment of the meritocratic house when
democratic processes threaten to get out of hand.
During a seminar at Tsingua University in October, 2006, the comparative
political scientist Adam Przeworski noted that nonpartisan institutions play an
important role in resolving conflicts when partisan politics cannot produce suffi-
cient consensus for nonviolent decision-making, and that the meritocratic house
could serve this function in the Chinese context. Like the Thai king, it would inter-
vene only in exceptional cases.
There may be the worry that the strong meritocratic system becomes
entrenchedfossilized, like the American constitutional systemand hard to
change once its in place. But what if it works well? The deputies debate at length.
They favor policies that prioritize the needs of the disadvantaged. They consider
the interests of all those affected by policies, including future generations andeven foreigners. For long-term planning, they favor technological change that
frees workers from the need to engage in drudge labor. They also try to limit the
environmental impact of new technologies. And what if the large majority of
Chinese seem satisfied with strong meritocracy? Should we complain just
because the system doesnt satisfy our ideas about democratic rule, or should we
allow for the possibility that there are morally legitimate, if not superior, alterna-
tives to Western-style liberal democracy?
Rather than subordinating
Confucian values and institu-
tions to democracy as an a pri-
ori dictum, they contain a divi-
sion of labor, with democracy
having priority in some areas
and meritocracy in others.
SPRING 2010 25
Hence, reformist Confucians put forward political ideals that are meant to
work better than Western-style democracy in terms of securing the interests of all
those affected by the policies of the government, including future generations and
foreigners.Their ideal is not a world where everybody is treated as an equal but one
where the interests of non-voters would be taken more seriously than in most
nation-centered democracies.And the key value for realizing global political ideals
is meritocracy, meaning equality of opportunity in education and government, with
8/13/2019 China Goes Its Own Way
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positions of leadership being distributed to the most virtuous and qualified mem-
bers of the community. The idea is that everyone has the potential to become
morally exemplary, but, in real life, the capacity to make competent and morally
justifiable political judgments varies among people, and an important task of the
political system is to identify those with above-average ability.
CONFUCIAN VALUES IN PRACTICE | What might such values mean inpractice? In the past decade, Confucian intellectuals have put forward political pro-
posals that aim to combine Western ideas of democracy with Confucian ideas of
meritocracy. Rather than subordinating Confucian values and institutions to democ-
racy as an a priori dictum, they contain a division of labor, with democracy having
priority in some areas and meritocracy in others. If its about land disputes in rural
China, farmers should have a greater say. If its about pay and safety disputes, work-
ers should have a greater say. In practice, it means more freedom of speech andassociation and more representation for workers and farmers in some sort of dem-
ocratic house.
But what about matters such as foreign policy and environmental protection?
What the government does in such areas affects the interests of non-voters, and they
need some form of representation as well. Hence, Confucian thinkers put forward
proposals for a meritocratic house of government, with deputies selected by such
mechanisms as free and fair competitive examinations, that would have the task of
representing the interests of non-voters typically neglected by democratically selected
decision-makers.
One obvious objection to examinations is that they cannot test for the kinds of
virtues that concerned Confuciusflexibility, humility, compassion and public-
spiritednessand that, ideally, would also characterize political decision-makers in
the modern world. Its true that examinations wont test perfectly for those virtues,
but the question is whether deputies chosen by such examinations are more likely to
be farsighted than those chosen by elections.
There are reasons to believe so. Drawing on extensive empirical research, Bryan
Caplans book The Myth of the Rational Voter:Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies shows
that voters are often irrational, and he suggests tests of voter competence as a rem-
edy. So examinations would test for basic economic policy (and knowledge of inter-
national relations), but they would also cover knowledge of the Confucian classics,
testing for memorization as well as interpretation. The leading Confucian political
thinker, Jiang Qing, argues that examinations could set a framework and moral
vocabulary for subsequent political actions, and successful candidates would also
need to be evaluated in terms of how they perform in practice.
SPRING 201026
In the past decade,
Confucian intellectuals have
put forward political pro-
posals that aim to combine
Western ideas of democ-
racy with Confucian ideas
of meritocracy.
8/13/2019 China Goes Its Own Way
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Farfetched? Its no less so than scenarios that envision a transition to Western-
style liberal democracy (because both scenarios assume a more open society). And it
answers the key worry about the transition to democracy: that it translates into short-
term, unduly nationalistic policymaking. Its also a matter of what standards we
should use to evaluate Chinas political progress. Politically speaking, most people
think China should look more like the West. But one day, perhaps, we will hope that
the West looks more like China.
Voters are often irrational.
SPRING 2010 27