The Sinophile

In my work with the China Resource Center, people will often ask me whether China will someday have a political system that resembles a Western-style Democracy. This is a great question and is one that is often related to Westerners ability to work openly in China. In other words, often when people are asking me this question, there’s a caveat to the question, if you will. Their thought process is often something like, “Once China has a completely democratic society, we’ll be able to do more ministry in China.”

In my mind, there is a lot to unpack in order to adequately answer their question. The motive behind their question is actually what strikes me first. It is my opinion that many Western Christians tie together the idea of greater political freedoms in China with more ministry opportunity. I believe that is true to an extent, but would not completely tie the two together. More on this side of the question later.

For now, let’s take a brief look at whether Western-style democracy is in China’s future. The short answer to this question is that I do not see a multi-party democracy in China’s future throughout the course of my life. But don’t despair too much because China is headed toward continued political freedom, just not in the way that you may want them to go. Of course for all of us, we like things that are familiar and having China move in a direction that would mirror our own political situation. But as is the case with much dealing with China, the Chinese approach a particular situation in its own Chinese way.

For those of you who really want to know more about the rise of democratic principles in China, may I highly recommend an article by John Thorton, who does an excellent job of covering the issue from all angles. This article, while quite long, gives an excellent look at the situation from several angels. In terms of democracy in China, although the top leaders at the national level see an increasing role for elections, particularly at the local level, they are quite firm that a more ‘deliberative’ form of politics that allows each citizen and group to add their views to the decision-making process is better suited to the Chinese situation than open, multiparty elections for national power. They often talk about meritocracy, which fits the long-held Chinese system of examinations to test a candidate’s ability and competence for office. There is also a school of Chinese government think-tank scholars that favor more of a social democracy for China’s future. A major reason that many intellectuals and government leaders in China may be drawn towards a social democratic model is that social democrats aim to reform capitalism democratically through state regulation. They also favor the creation of state-sponsored programs and organizations, which work to improve or remove injustices purportedly inflicted by the capitalist market system. Social democracy normally has an extensive system of social security (which is already in place in China) and a government system that regulates private enterprise in the interest of workers, consumers and fair competition.

Given the unique nature of what is taking place in China within these different debates, the current power structure and those that are in power in the Chinese government and the long history that serves as a context for the debates, I cannot see a situation where we’d see a multi-party democracy any time within my lifetime. So what does this mean for those of us interested in impacting China for Christ? In next weeks blog post, I’ll give you a deeper examination and answers to that question. In brief, I think we must first accept the fact that democracy is not coming to China any time soon and fit our organizational goals accordingly. Just because the form of government in China is different than our own does not mean that effective and meaningful ministry cannot take place.

I am sitting here reading an WSJ article about the trial of a judge, a judicial chief in Chongqing who is convicted of taking massive bribes over many years in order to keep organized crime in Chongqing safe from the law. In the understatement of the year, the article states, “The problem of judicial corruption threatens to undermine public confidence in the legal system just as China pushes to further develop the rule of law.” Clearly, the judicial system in China is full of corruption and incompetence. Many judges assume their jobs directly out of college, without the experience that comes from working at lower level positions first. Adding to the situation is that Chinese courts are still controlled by the Communist Party, and their ability to make independent decisions is limited.

As I sit here at my desk reading this article, the thought popped into my head that this task of developing rule of law in China is a MASSIVE task, with so many obstacles in the way. It’s like finding a pebble in a deep ocean….. I want to be a part of the solution, but it seems at times to be an insurmountable problem. To see real rule of law in China, you have to deal not only with the corruption, but also the education of public officials on what the law actually says, plus the task of reforming the thought process of government officials to allow the law to stand on it’s own….. Wow!

In future blog posts, I hope to offer my view of solutions. But today, it feels like I’m swimming in a wide and deep ocean, unsure of how to get to solid ground.

I had an epiphany of sorts on my September 2009 trip to China. As many of you know, I have a real interest in observing the development of rule of law in China. There are several different ways that you can observe the situation: You can read intellectual studies on how China should best implement rule of law. You can hear and read what human rights and American governmental organizations will say and watch the ways that they will try to pressure China to change. Of course, all of this has its value, because we use some of these same tools in our analysis of current trends in China.

My revelation happened while in a taxi with a couple of the guys on our travel team. As I’ve been doing a lot of reading about rule of law and how it practically works in a society, the benefits it produces, I was in this taxi and a really big thought hit me. It had to do with Rule of Law in China……. The Wikipedia page on Rule of Law defines it like this, “The rule of law, also called supremacy of law, means that the law is above everyone and it applies to everyone. Whether governor or governed, rulers or ruled, no one is above the law, no one is exempted from the law, and no one can grant exemption to the application of the law.” And while China desperately needs Rule of Law, needs to implement Rule of Law and would see tremendous benefit for its people because of Rule of Law, I am getting a stronger sense all the time at how hard it is going to be to actually get the job done.

For those of you who have ridden in a Chinese taxi, you know that the experience can be thrilling at times and downright scary other times. Because I had in the taxi with me people who had never been to China before, they were offering comments about the drivers driving from a first-timers perspective. As we were driving down the road, it was clear that things like red lights and pedestrian crossings meant very little to this driver. One of the guys on the team said something like, “Man, it sure seems like he’s making up his own rules as he goes.” As I thought about that for a minute, it really hit me: ‘Yes, he is making his own rules as he goes, and in fact, when I think about it, many in China make up the rules as they go.’ Whether it’s driving, in business, in public safety, etc…. it doesn’t matter. This rule of man has a very long history in China. In imperial times, the Emperor was the Son of Heaven, and his word was like hearing the very words of God. When he gave power to a local official, then that official had the final word. And so it’s really no wonder that Rule of Man still prevails so deeply with the Chinese. They are taught it from childhood and it really is encoded into their Chinese DNA of what makes them what they are.

Making the transition from Rule of Man to Rule of Law will be a long and hard transition. It will most likely take several generations. There are for me three ‘takeaways’ from my minor epiphany for us in the West: First, we need to exercise patience as China makes this transition. Second, we need to continue to dialogue with, engage with and ‘teach’ the Chinese the benefits of a system where the laws on the books are the same everywhere and cover everyone. Thirdly, we do the first two because we know that China is worth our time and that there are 1.3 Billion who need us to positively impact China for Christ.

I’ve just spent the bulk of the morning reading about Xu Zhiyong, about Public Interest and Human Rights Law in China and I must say that this case throws another ‘wrench’ into the analysis of current trends in China that I try to provide. As I wrote in the last blog post, I think that these cases give us more questions than answers in the Chinese governments attempt to maintain control in China.

For those of you not familiar with Xu, here’s a quote from the New York Times about Xu:

Xu Zhiyong, 36, a soft-spoken and politically shrewd legal scholar who has made a name representing migrant workers, death row inmates and the parents of babies poisoned by tainted milk, is accused of tax evasion. The

Public Interest Lawyer Xu Zhiyong

accusation is almost universally seen here as a cover for his true offense: angering the Communist Party leadership through his advocacy of the rule of law.

By every account, Xu is a good guy, a great lawyer, and a man who has tried deliberately not to make statements that would be deemed offensive to the Chinese government. His sole mission has been Public Interest Law and upholding the current Chinese Constitution. In fact, as the co-founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, has been to take the current Chinese constitution and use it to fight for the rights of those less represented and work within the current Chinese legal system. Apparently, he crossed a line that the Chinese government felt was too far. In late July, the Beijing tax bureau closed down the Open Constitution Initiative’s office for the charge of tax evasion. Xu was scheduled to meet with tax bureau officials on July 30, the day after he was detained.

My analysis of this situation goes in several different directions. Of course, if his law office did not pay its taxes, there are penalties for that anywhere around the world. In fact, a quick internet search told me that in the U.S., tax evasion is a felony and a conviction can carry a prison sentence of up to five years and/or fines up to $100,000. So it’s not like we have reason to get on the Chinese government’s case for upholding their own laws, if in fact they are guilty of the crimes charged. They have every right to uphold their own laws. I would though take a bit of umbrage as to their tactics. Even if they are guilty, going to the offenders’ home and essentially abducting them and then detaining them at an undisclosed location is an inappropriate method.

And then we get into answering the questions, “What if he isn’t guilty of tax evasion? What if he just pushed the wrong buttons in his recent work with secret ‘black jails’ in Beijing and the reduction of death penalty cases?” Of course, the answers to these questions are far more troubling. I sense that in taking our investigation down some of these roads, two things will end up happening. Regardless of whether they are guilty of tax evasion or not, there certainly is some truth that they just rubbed the wrong people in the wrong ways, which opens up one of the greatest weaknesses of the National Government in China. It’s like there’s this huge gaping wound that isn’t healing and when someone like Xu touches the wound, those with the wound react in a defensive manner, just to cover up the wound. From blocking internet sites, controlling foreign journalists to prohibiting the development of rule of law, there’s a lot of room for China to grow. It also leaves me asking the questions of ‘How is it that we in the West can help China in this situation? And if we can help, will they even be open to our help?’ I love China and the Chinese people and I don’t want to see them deal with these gaping wounds any more. I want to see it healed. Don’t you?

P.S. For a wonderful, first-hand account of Xu, click here.