Table Of ContentContemporary Chinese Political Thought
Contemporary Chinese
Political Thought
Debates and Perspectives
Edited by
FrEd dallmayr
and Zhao Tingyang
Copyright © 2012 by The University Press of Kentucky
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library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Contemporary Chinese political thought : debates and perspectives / edited by
Fred dallmayr and Zhao Tingyang.
p. cm.— (asia in the new millennium)
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSBn 978-0-8131-3642-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
— iSBn 978-0-8131-3643-1 (pdf) — iSBn 978-0-8131-4063-6 (epub)
1. Political science—China—Philosophy—history—20th century. 2. Political
science—China—Philosophy—history—21th century. i. dallmayr, Fred r.
(Fred reinhard), 1928- ii. Zhao, Tingyang.
Ja84.C6C66 2012
320.0951—dc23 2012010814
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the american
national Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed library materials.
manufactured in the United States of america.
member of the association of
american University Presses
Contents
Preface vii
introduction 1
Fred Dallmayr
Part 1. Contemporary Issues and Debates
1. ideological Conflicts in modern China 17
Ji Wenshun
2. The debates in Contemporary Chinese Political Thought 26
Zhou Lian
3. all-Under-heaven and methodological relationism: an old Story and new
World Peace 46
Zhao Tingyang
4. debating the “Chinese Theory of international relations”: Toward a new
Stage in China’s international Studies 67
Zhang Feng
Part 2. Confucianism and Chinese Politics
5. Contemporary new Confucianism: Background, Varieties, and Significance
91
Liu Shuxian
6. modernity and Confucian Political Philosophy in a globalized World 110
Chen Ming
7. Four models of the relationship between Confucianism and
democracy 131
He Baogang
8. Confucianism and democracy: Water and Fire? Water and oil? or Water
and Fish? 152
Ni Peimin
Part 3. Post-Maoism and the New Left
9. The dialectic of the Chinese revolution revisited: desublimation and
resublimation in Post-mao China 173
Ci Jiwei
10. China’s Future: Suggestions from Petty Bourgeois Socialist Theories and Some
Chinese Practices 185
Cui Zhiyuan
11. Taking the China model Seriously: one-Party Constitutionalism and
Economic development 209
Frank Fang
12. Why is State Effectiveness Essential for democracy? asian Examples 242
Wang Shaoguang
13. The legitimacy of Proletarian Political Practice: on marxist Political
Philosophy 268
Cheng Guangyun
list of Contributors 285
index 289
Preface
The present volume is a result of the collaboration between a Western
political theorist and a Chinese philosopher. i first met Professor Zhao
Tingyang some ten years ago at a conference held at Capital normal Uni-
versity in Beijing. at that time, we had extensive discussions, and we both
discovered an affinity or compatibility of our views on many topics. like
me, Zhao Tingyang is neither a universalist nor a narrow particularist,
neither a devotee of abstract principles or formulas nor a supporter of an
exclusivist identity politics. it is in the interstices of these positions that
dialogue and communication flourish.
Since our first meeting we continued our intellectual exchanges. one
idea that emerged in our communications was the desirability of putting
together a volume presenting the spectrum of political ideas and intellec-
tual debates in contemporary China. as we both agreed, there is still—at
least in the West—a woeful lack of knowledge of these ideas, accompanied
by an often gross misunderstanding and a tendency to resort to simplistic
stereotypes. one of the central ambitions of philosophical thought every-
where is to combat stereotypes and to reduce the likelihood of misunder-
standing. Philosophy in its best sense thus is a means of conflict resolution
and a pathway to peace, here the peace between “East” and “West.”
regarding the spelling of Chinese names, we enlisted the help of Pro-
fessor Cai daliang.
Fred dallmayr
october 2011
Introduction
Fred Dallmayr
during the past two decades or so, China has been emerging into the
limelight of global economics, global science, and global politics. having
been consumed for nearly a century by the strains of internal and exter-
nal troubles, the asian giant is at long last assuming its rightful place in
the global community of peoples. yet, behind staggering growth rates and
levels of productivity, something else at least equally impressive is hap-
pening: the steady burgeoning of Chinese intellectual life and its solid inte-
gration into the global market of ideas and philosophical arguments. For
political pessimists, this intellectual emergence is only another stepping-
stone in the direction of a looming “clash of civilizations.” From another,
more hopeful and dispassionate angle, the same development is able to
lay the groundwork for a genuine dialogue between the “East” and the
“West,” a dialogue conducive to a mutual learning process and a loosen-
ing of rigid ideological positions. Ever since the onset of the Cold War,
political thought in the West—especially in america—has been in the
grip of liberal individualism and neoliberalism, with its accent on private
autonomy, profit making, and public deregulation. on the other hand,
roughly since the same time, China has experienced the fortunes and
misfortunes of political and economic collectivism, sometimes abetted by
a heavy-handed traditionalism disdainful of individual freedoms. Under
these circumstances, a genuine encounter between “East” and “West” car-
ries with it the prospect of greater mutual attentiveness and a dismantling
of ideological straitjackets.
The present volume brings together essays by Chinese intellectuals
written (with one exception) in the first decade of the twenty-first cen-
tury. The arguments of the writers, of course, are not advanced in a vac-
uum but make sense only when seen against the background of Chinese
history, especially developments in the past century. By and large, Chi-
nese intellectual life in recent times has been dominated by a dialectic
of radically opposed positions: anti-Westernism and pro-Westernism—
