Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives

2. The Debates in Contemporary Chinese Political Thought

2 The Debates in Contemporary Chinese Political Thought Zhou Lian Since the 1990s there has been a spate of interest in understanding why political philosophy is so fashionable in mainland China. Since the viewpoints of the most influential political philosophers are very different and contradictory, more and more Chinese intellectuals have engaged in heated debate about whose theory is the most relevant to the current reality of China and its future. Because some realize that political philosophy should be assessed not only in terms of moral desirability but also with regard to cultural acceptability and socioeconomic feasibility, we should not be confused by the kaleidoscopic appearance of contemporary Chinese political philosophy, but rather penetrate the inner logic of the various theories and comprehend the ways in which they correspond to the reality of China today. This chapter has two aims. The first is to provide an account of contemporary Chinese political philosophers’ unique contributions to political theory. i will pay particular attention to one ideological trend and two scholars, respectively. due to Chinese economic success over the last thirty years, especially after the olympic games, the world financial crisis , and the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s republic of China, more and more Chinese scholars have recognized the ongoing revival of the national confidence of ordinary people. What has confused Chinese scholars most, however, is how to figure out a coherent and reasonable interpretation of the history of People’s republic of China, especially the relationship between its first thirty years (from 1949 to 1979) and the next thirty years (from 1979 to 2009). in order to explain the The debates in Contemporary Chinese Political Thought 27 positive role of Chinese political institutions in the country’s economic development, some scholars coined the notion “the China model.” The idea of the “China model” or “Chinese characteristics” raises many related questions. For example, is China still under a form of socialism? What is the political legitimacy of the Chinese government? how can we understand socialist democracy? Can China offer another version of modernity? What kind of contribution will Chinese culture bring to the world? i do not intend to explore all those topics here; instead i will focus on two special issues: the discourse of political legitimacy in China and the unique understanding of democracy in China. Besides the “China model,” i will explore professor gan yang and Zhao Tingyang’s ideas. Both specialize in Western philosophy, without, however, merely echoing Western ideas or repeating traditional Chinese concepts. Both are committed to the arduous task of transforming Chinese traditional thought, so as to develop original and debate-provoking ideas. The second aim of this chapter is to give a general picture of contemporary Western political philosophy in China in the twenty-first century. more than one hundred years have gone by since Chinese intellectuals first introduced Western political ideas into China. although the process was interrupted for nearly thirty years in the middle of the twentieth century , for well-known reasons, the trend of introducing Western thought was resumed in the 1980s. after Tiananmen Square, many Chinese scholars began to reflect upon the whole intellectual process of the twentieth century. on the one hand, some advocated a gradual and evolutionary approach to change and called for a “Farewell to revolution”; by contrast, others chose to go back to studying classical texts. These two approaches have developed very distinctively. among those who advocate a gradual, evolutionary approach, there are two competing positions. Some, known as the “new left,” have argued that the goal of national strength and stability should be put above any absolute commitment to the “rational autonomy ” of the individual. on the other hand, those proponents of a gradual approach who advocate a free market and the limitation of governmental power are called “liberals” or “liberalists.” These two gradualist sides have long debated how to maintain a balance between issues of equality and economic development, their members including political scientists, economists, socialists, and political philosophers. While the present essay will not go into this debate in any detail, this is not because it is no longer important or influential in today’s China, but rather because many intro- 28 ZhoU lian ductory and analytical articles examining it have been published in the West since the 1990s. in comparison with the gradualist group, there is less diversity among those who advocate a return to classical studies...