Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:29:31.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chinese Conceptions of “Rights”: From Mencius to Mao—and Now

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2008

Elizabeth J. Perry
Elizabeth J. Perry
Affiliation:
Harvard University and the Association for Asian Studies ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The recent explosion of popular protest in China, often framed as a demand for the fulfillment of “rights,” has captured widespread attention. Some observers interpret the protests as signs of a “moral vacuum.” Others see the unrest as signaling a powerful new “rights consciousness.” In either case, the protests are often regarded as a major challenge to the stability of the political system. In this article, an examination of Chinese conceptions of “rights,” as reflected in the ethical discourses of philosophers, political leaders, and protesters (and as contrasted with American understandings of rights), provides the basis for questioning prevailing assumptions about the fragility of the Chinese political order. For over two millennia, Chinese political thought, policy, and protest have assigned central priority to the attainment of socioeconomic security. As a result, the meaning of “rights” in Chinese political discourse differs significantly from the Anglo-American tradition. Viewed in historical context, China's contemporary “rights” protests seem less politically threatening. The Chinese polity appears neither as vacuous nor as vulnerable as it is sometimes assumed to be.Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard University and is the current President of the Association for Asian Studies ([email protected]). A preliminary draft of this paper was delivered as a keynote address at the conference on Socioeconomic Rights and Justice in China held at Dickinson College in April 2004. The author is grateful to the conference organizer, Neil Diamant, for the invitation to consider these issues and to the other conference participants (especially David Strand and Jerome Cohen) for their challenging comments and questions. A substantially revised version was presented at the conference in memory of Benjamin Schwartz, held in Shanghai at East China Normal University in December 2006. Thanks are due to the conference organizers and participants (particularly Zhu Zhenghui, Xu Jilin, Zhang Jishun, Tong Shijun, and Roderick MacFarquhar) for their stimulating suggestions. Appreciation is also extended to Stephen Angle, Nara Dillon, Mary Gallagher, and Kevin O'Brien for their critical reading of an earlier draft.

Type
Research Article
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 37 - 50
Copyright
© 2008 American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angle, Stephen C. 2002. Human Rights and Chinese Thought: A Cross-Cultural Inquiry. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Angle, Stephen C., and Marina Svensson, eds. 2001. The Chinese Human Rights Reader. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Buckley, Chris. 2006. “China's land grabs fueling unrest, says Premier.” Reuters, January 20.
Calhoun, Craig. 1994. Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Crothers, Lane. 2003. Rage on the Right: The American Militia Movement from Ruby Ridge to Homeland Security. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Fleischacker, Samuel. 2004. A Short History of Distributive Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Fung, Edmund S.K. 2006. The idea of freedom in modern China revisited. Modern China, no. 33.
Gallagher, Mary. 2005. Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gilley, Bruce. 2004. China's Democratic Future. New York: Columbia University Press.
Goldman, Merle. 2005. From Comrade to Citizen: The Struggle for Political Rights in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Goldman, Merle. 2007. Political Rights in Post-Mao China. Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies.
Gries, Peter Hays, and Stanley Rosen, eds. 2004. State and Society in 21st Century China: Crisis, Contention and Legitimation. New York: Routledge.
Hamilton, Neil A. 1996. Militias in America. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.
Han Jun. 2006. “Zouchu xin nongcun jianshe de wuqu” [Escaping the mistakes in new socialist countryside construction]. Xin nongcun jianshe, October 2006.
Hartz, Louis. 1955. The Liberal Tradition in America: An Interpretation of American Political Thought since the Revolution. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Heimer, Maria, and Stig Thogersen, eds. 2006. Doing Fieldwork in China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Huang Kewu. 1994. Yige bei fangqi de xuanze: Liang Qichao tiaoshi sixiang zhi yanjiu [The rejected path: a study of Liang Qichao's accommodative thinking]. Taipei: Academia Sinica Modern History Institute.
Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. 2000. “Fifty Years of Progress in China's Human Rights.” Beijing.
Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. 2002. “Human Rights Record of the United States in 2001.” Beijing.
Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. 2004. “China's Progress in Human Rights in 2004.” Beijing.
Jarvis, Harold. 1979. I'm Mad as Hell: The Exclusive Story of the Tax Revolt and Its Leader. New York: Times Books.
Jefferson, Thomas. 1787. Letter to William S. Smith. Paris: November 13, 1787.
Lee, Ching Kwan Lee. 2002. From the specter of Mao to the spirit of the law: Labor insurgency in China. Theory and Society 31 (April): 189–228.Google Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan Lee. 2003. “Pathways of Labour Insurgency.” In Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance, ed. Elizabeth J.Perry and Mark Selden. New York: Routledge.
Lee, Ching Kwan Lee. 2007. Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Locke, John. 1960. Two Treatises of Government. New York: Cambridge University Press.
MacFarquhar, Roderick, and Michael Schoenhals. 2006. Mao's Last Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Mao Zedong. 1971. Selected Readings from the Works of Mao Tsetung. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.
Marshall, T.H. 1964. Class, Citizenship and Social Development. Garden City: Doubleday.
McCann, Michael W. 1994. Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Meadows, Thomas Taylor. 1856. The Chinese and their Rebellions. London: Smith, Elder, and Company.
Mencius. 1970. The Works of Mencius [Chinese and English]. Trans. James Legge. New York: Dover Publications.
Mulloy, D.J. 2004. American Extremism: History, Politics and the Militia Movement. New York: Routledge.
Munro, Donald J. 2000. The Concept of Man in Contemporary China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Munro, Donald J. 2001. The Concept of Man in Early China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Nathan, Andrew J. 1985. Chinese Democracy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Niu A. 1993. “A Strike Takes Place in Chongqing Knitting Mill.” In Zheng Ming (no. 186), translated in Foreign Broadcast Information Service (April 6).
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Li Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Rachel E. Stern, eds. Forthcoming. Popular Contention in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ouyang Wei. 1991. “Peasants in Yintao Township, Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province Rise Up Against Tax Collections,” in Bai Xing (no. 250), translated in Foreign Broadcast Information Service (October 28).
Peardon, Thomas P., ed. 1952. John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.
Perry, Elizabeth J. 2007. Studying Chinese politics: Farewell to revolution? China Journal 57 (January): 1–22.Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J., and Mark Selden, eds. 2003. Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. New York: Routledge.
Pingxiang City Chinese Communist Party Editorial Group, ed., 1990. Anyuan lukuang gongren yundong [The Anyuan railway and mine workers' movement]. Beijing: Chinese Communist Party History Documents Press, 2 volumes.
Roberts, Dexter. 2005. “Waking Up to Their Rights.” Business Week, August 22/29: 123.
Schwartz, Benjamin I. 1951. Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Schwartz, Benjamin I. 1964. In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Schwartz, Benjamin I. 1968. Communism and China: Ideology in Flux. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sears, David O., and Jack Citrin. 1985. Tax Revolt: Something for Nothing in California. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Shih Men. 1993. “Reference News.” In Zheng Ming (no. 191), translated in Foreign Broadcast Information Service (September 10).
Sun Yupeng, and Ma Guang. 1995. “Replacing Concepts, Taking Part in Reform-Dialogue on Problems of Industrial Workers.” In Liaoning ribao (Nov. 22 and Dec. 6, 1994), translated in Foreign Broadcast Information Service (March 16, 1995).
Svensson, Marina. 2002. Debating Human Rights in China. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
U.S. Department of State. 2002. “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China, 2001.” (Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, March 4, 2002).
Wakeman, Frederic Jr. 1973. History and Will: Philosophical Perspectives on Mao Tse-tung's Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Weir, Margaret. 1992. Politics and Jobs: The Boundaries of Employment Policy in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wong, R. Bin. 1997. China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Wong, R. Bin. 1999. Citizenship in Chinese history. In Extending Citizenship, Reconfiguring States ed. Michael Hanagan and Charles Tilly. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Yu Jianrong. 2003. “Nongmin you zuzhi kangzheng ji qi zhengshi fengxian: Hunansheng Hxian diaocha” [Organized peasant resistance and its political risks: An investigation of H County in Hunan Province]. Zhanlue yu guanli, no. 3: 1–16.
Yu Jianrong. 2006. Zhongguo gongren jieji zhuangkuang: Anyuan shilu [The plight of China's working class: annals of Anyuan]. Hong Kong and New York: Mirror Books.
Zhang Xiufeng, Luo Lin, and Gong Wenrui. 2005. “Goujian hexie xin nongcun—Ganzhou yinxiangji” [Constructing a harmonious new countryside—impressions of Ganzhou]. Fukan, July 9.
Zweig, David. 2003. To the courts or to the barricades: Can new political institutions manage rural conflict? In Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance, ed. Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden. New York: Routledge.