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Defending the Nation: The Role of Nationalism in Chinese Thinking on Human Rights

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13510340701846418

1743-890X

Robert Weatherley,

International Law and Human Rights

Abstract This article examines the symbiotic relationship between Chinese thinking on human rights and Chinese nationalism. It analyses the three key periods in the Chinese discourse on human rights: late Qing, Republican, and post-Mao. In each case, discussions of rights have often (but not always) taken place within a wider debate about the protection of China's national interests from foreign infringement, although the nature of the foreign infringement has changed over time. During the late Qing debate, with China increasingly threatened by foreign military imperialism, scholars argued enthusiastically for the introduction of a new system of democratic rights as a vital tool of national resistance. During the Republican era that followed, the threat from outside remained the same. However by now many theorists had grown disillusioned with democracy and rights, believing that the only way China could withstand further foreign encroachments was to withhold rights from its people. In the post-Mao debate on rights, the interests of the nation are again at the fore. But with China now an emerging rather than a collapsing power, rights are often analysed – at least from an official perspective – within the context of cultural rather than military imperialism, the new 'threat' from abroad. The article then examines the views of China's 'non-official' rights thinkers, most of whom tend to be much less affected by nationalist concerns and ends with an assessment of the prospects for democracy and rights in China. Keywords: Chinahuman rightsdemocracynationalism Notes 1. Benjamin Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1964), pp. 15–16. 2. See Stephen Angle and Marina Svensson (eds), The Chinese Human Rights Reader: Documents and Commentary, 1900–2000 (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2001); Marina Svensson, Debating Human Rights in China: A Conceptual and Political History (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002); Robert Weatherley, 'Challenging the State Orthodoxy: Liberal Conceptions of Human Rights in Late Qing and Post-Mao China', Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2007), pp. 331–52. 3. Schwartz (note 1), p. 55. 4. Hao Chang, Liang Chi-Chao and the Intellectual Transition in China: 1890–1907 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), pp. 158–61. 5. Schwartz (note 1), p. 46. 6. Frank Dikotter, The Discourse of Race in Modern China (London: Hurst, 1994), p. 104. 7. See Tian Weijun, 'Xinmin Yu Qiangguo: Yan Fu, Liang Qichao Xinmin Xueshuo Pingxi' (The New Citizen and Nation-Building: An Analysis of the New Citizen Theory of Yan Fu and Liang Qichao), Wuhan Daxue Xuebao, No. 3 (1992), pp. 32–7. 8. Liang Qichao, Yingbingshi Quanji (Complete Works from an Ice-drinker's Studio) (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1989), p. 42. 9. Hsiao Kung-chuan, A Modern China and a New World: Kang Yu-wei, Reformer and Utopian (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1975). 10. Joshua Mingchien Bau, Modern Democracy in China (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1923), p. 7. 11. Liu Kongfu and Pan Liangzhi, 'Guanyu Kang Youwei de Pingjia Wenti' (On the Evaluation of Kang Youwei), Tianjin Shehui Kexue, No. 6 (1993), pp. 71–2. 12. For analysis of the ideas of Yang Dusheng, see Zhang Nan and Wang Renzhi (eds), Gemingqian Shinian Shijian (Collected Works from the Ten Year Period before the Xinhai Revolution) (Beijing: Sanlian Chubanshe, 1963), pp. 612–48. For analysis of the ideas of Zou Rong see Zhou Yonglin (ed.), Zou Rong Wenji (Collected Works of Zou Rong) (Chongqing: Chongqing Chubanshe, 1983). 13. Zhang and Wang (note 12), p. 479. 14. Gong Fazi, 'Yingren Zhi Quanli Sixiang' (The English View of Rights), Yinshu Huibian, Vol. 2, No. 9 (1902), p. 3. 15. Liang (note 8), p. 44. 16. Hugh Baker, Chinese Family and Kinship (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979), pp. 45–7. 17. See Xu Yucheng, 'Jinkui Xu Yucheng Nushi Duiyu Nujie Diyici Yanshuogao' (First Speech of Miss Xu Yucheng from Jinkui to the Women's World), Zhongguo Xin Nujie Zazhi, No. 5 (1907), p. 2. For a summary of He Zhen's views see Peter Zarrow, 'He Zhen and Anarcho-Feminism in China', Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 47, No. 4 (1988), pp. 796–813. 18. Svensson (note 2), p. 106. 19. Schwartz (note 1), p. 141. 20. Lloyd Eastman, The Abortive Revolution: China Under Nationalist Rule, 1927–1937 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), p. 142. 21. Andrew Nathan, Peking Politics 1918-23: Factionalism and the Failure of Constitutionalism (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976), pp. 222–3. 22. Andrew Nathan, Chinese Democracy: The Individual and the State in Twentieth Century China (London: I. B. Tauris, 1986), p. 62. 23. Schwartz (note 1), p. 222. 24. Schwartz (note 1), pp. 221–2. 25. Chester Tan, Chinese Political Thought in the Twentieth Century (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1972), p. 25. 26. See Clarence Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen: Frustrated Patriot (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976). 27. Eastman (note 20), p. 146. 28. Sun Yat-sen, Sanmin Zhuyi (The Three Principles of the People) (Taibei: Zhongguo Chubanshe Gongsi, 1975), p. 75. 29. Nathan (note 22), pp. 60–1. 30. A useful study of this period is provided by James Sheridan, China in Disintegration: The Republican Era in Chinese History 1912–1949 (New York: The Free Press, 1975). 31. Wu Jingxiong and Huang Gongjue, Zhongguo Zhixianshi (A History of the Establishment of the Chinese Constitution) (Shanghai: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1937), p. 909. 32. Sun Yat-sen (note 28), p. 76. 33. Andrew Nathan, 'Political Rights in Chinese Constitutions', in R. Randle Edwards, Louis Henkin, and Andrew Nathan (eds), Human Rights in Contemporary China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), p. 90. 34. Wu Jingxiong, 'Sanmin Zhuyi he Falu' (Law and the Three Principles of the People), in Wu Jingxiong (ed.), Falu Zhixue Yanjiu (Research in the Philosophy of Law) (Shanghai: Shanghai Faxue Bianjishe, 1933), p. 42. 35. Zhou Jingwen, 'Renquan Yundong Gangling' (The Programme for the Human Rights Movement), Shidai Piping, Vol. 73/74 (1941), p. 3. 36. For analysis of the Hundred Flowers Campaign see Roderick MacFarquhar, The Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Chinese Intellectuals (London: Octagon Press, 1974). For analysis of the Democracy Wall Movement see Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard, 'The Democracy Movement in China, 1978–79: Opposition Movements, Wall Poster Campaigns and Underground Journals', Asian Survey, Vol. 21, No. 7 (1981), pp. 747–74. 37. See, for example, Li Guangcan, 'Guanyu Zichan Jiejishi De Quanli Wenti De Taolun' (A Discussion of the Bourgeois Rights Question), Renmin Ribao, 28 March 1959; Xiao Weiyun, Luo Haocai, and Wu Xieying, 'Ma Kesi Zhuyi Zenyang Kan Renquan Wenti' (How Marxism Views the Question of Human Rights), Hongqi, No. 5 (1979), pp. 43–8; Ru Xin, 'Pipan Zichan Jieji Rendao Zhuyi Xuanchuan Shehui Zhuyi Rendao Zhuyi' (Criticize Bourgeois Humanism, Propagate Socialist Humanism), Zhongguo Shehui Kexue, No. 2 (1984), pp. 3–18. 38. Information Office of the State Council (IOSC), Human Rights in China (Beijing: Central Literature Publishing House, 1991). 39. See IOSC, Tibet: Its Ownership and Human Rights Situation (Beijing: Central Literature Publishing House, 1992); IOSC, Freedom of Religious Belief in China (Beijing: Central Literature Publishing House, 1997); IOSC, Gender Equality and Women's Development in China (Central Literature Publishing House, 2005). 40. China Daily, 21 October 1998, p. 1. 41. China Daily, 11 February 2002, p. 1. 42. For an alternative view see Chen Dingding, 'Explaining China's Changing Discourse on Human Rights: 1978–2004', Asian Perspective, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2005), pp. 155–82. 43. See Harry Harding, A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China Since 1972 (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1992). 44. Analysis of this process is provided by Robert Weatherley, Politics in China since 1949: Legitimizing Authoritarian Rule (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 153–9. 45. Xu Guangqiu, 'Anti-Western Nationalism: 1989–1999', World Affairs, Vol. 163, No. 4 (2001), p. 156. 46. See IOSC, Human Rights in China; IOSC, Fifty Years of Progress in China's Human Rights (Beijing: Central Literature Publishing House, 2000). 47. Cai Wenhua, 'Lun Rendao Zhuyi Ganshe De Feifaxing' (On the Unlawful Nature of Humanitarian Intervention), Beijing Shehui Kexue, No. 3 (1992), pp. 54–8; Liu Fenzhi, 'Renquan Wenti Shuodaodi Shi Shuyu Yige Guojia Zhuquan Fanwei de Shi' (The Issue of Human Rights is Ultimately an Affair That Should Remain Within the Scope of National Sovereignty), Qiushi, No. 8 (1993), pp. 25–8. 48. IOSC, Human Rights in China (note 46), p. 1. 49. Ibid., p. 2. 50. 'Human Rights in China and US Compared', China Daily, 11 March 1996, pp. 3–4. 51. IOSC, Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005 (Beijing: Central Literature Publishing House, 2006), p. 2. 52. IOSC, Human Rights in China (note 46), p. 3. 53. Ibid., p. 4. 54. Ibid., p. 4. 55. Fareed Zakaria, 'Culture is Destiny: A Conversation with Lee Kuan Yew', Foreign Affairs, Vol. 73, No. 2 (1994), pp. 109–26. 56. For an overview of China's 'human rights diplomacy' within the UN see Ming Wan, Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), pp. 106–28. 57. The role of the internet in Chinese politics is discussed in Phil Deans, 'The Internet in the People's Republic of China: Censorship and Participation', in Jason Abbott (ed.), The Political Economy of the Internet in Asia and the Pacific: Digital Divides, Economic Competitiveness and Security Challenges (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004), pp. 123–38. 58. See Peter Hays Gries, China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics and Diplomacy (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004). 59. For analysis see Robert Weatherley, 'The Evolution of Chinese Thinking on Human Rights in the Post-Mao Era', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2001), pp. 19–42; Svensson (note 2), pp. 261–96. 60. Xu Bing, 'Renquan Lilun de Chansheng he Lishi Fazhan' (The Rise and Historical Development of Human Rights Theory), Faxue Yanjiu, No. 3 (1989), p. 9. 61. Ibid., p. 9. 62. Li Buyun, 'Lun Renquan de Sanzhong Cunzai Xingtai' (On the Three Types of Human Rights), in Dangdai Renquan (Contemporary Human Rights) (Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1992), p. 8. 63. Dong Yunhu and Liu Wuping (eds), Shijie Renquan Yuefa Zonglan Xubian (A Supplement to International Documents on Human Rights) (Sichuan: Sichuan People's Publishing House, 1993); Dong Yunhu, 'Zhongguo Renquan Fazhan de Yige Zhongyao Lichenbei' (An Important Milestone in China's Human Rights Development), Renquan, No. 1 (2002) at http://www.humanrights-China.org/ 64. Du Gangjian, 'Shouyao Renquan yu Yanlun Ziyou' (The Foremost Human Right and Freedom of Speech), Faxue, No. 1 (1993), p. 8. 65. Amnesty International, 'The Olympics Countdown: One Year Left to Fulfil Human Rights Promises' at http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA170242007. 66. Useful studies include Robert Pastor and Tan Qingshan, 'The Meaning of China's Village Elections', China Quarterly, Vol. 162 (2000), pp. 490–512; Kevin O'Brien, 'Villagers, Elections, and Citizenship in Contemporary China', Modern China, Vol. 27, No. 4 (2001), pp. 407–35; Shi Tianjian, 'Village Committee Elections in China: Institutional Tactics for Democracy', World Politics, Vol. 51, No. 3 (1999), pp. 385–412. 67. Kevin O'Brien, 'Neither Transgressive Nor Contained: Boundary Spanning Contention in China', in Peter Hays Gries and Stanley Rosen (eds), State and Society in 21st Century China: Crisis, Contention and Legitimation (New York: Routledge, 2004), pp. 105–22. 68. Pastor and Tan (note 66), p. 504. 69. Linda Chao and Ramon Myers, 'How Elections Promoted Democracy in Taiwan Under Martial Law', in Larry Diamond and Ramon Myers (eds), Elections and Democracy in Greater China (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 23–45. 70. Xi Jieying, Sun Yunxiao, and Xiao Jingjian (eds), Chinese Youth in Transition (London: Ashgate, 2006). 71. Bruce Dickson, Red Capitalists in China: The Party, Private Entrepreneurs and Prospects for Political Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Joseph Fewsmith, 'The Political Implications of China's Growing Middle Class', China Leadership Monitor, No. 21 (2007), pp. 1–8. 72. On Wenzhou see for example Jianjun Zhang, 'Marketization, Class Structure, and Democracy in China: Contrasting Regional Experiences', Democratization, Vol. 14, No. 3 (2007), pp. 425–45. Additional informationNotes on contributorsRobert WeatherleyDr Robert Weatherley is a lawyer with the national law firms Mills & Reeve and heads up the firm's China Group. He is also an Associate of the Centre of International Studies at Cambridge University, UK.