Must China be Faulted for its Political System?

Ci Jiwei (University of Hong Kong)

Abstract: One enduring legacy of the Cold War for China is a very common perception, at home and abroad, of its political system as morally inferior and hence in need of fundamental change. At the core of this perception is China’s supposed lack of democracy. This is viewed as an incorrigible deficiency of China’s political system with both domestic and international implications. The Chinese state registers this perception as an injury to its pride as an equal among the world’s political systems and, more importantly, as a potentially lethal threat to its very existence with its current political identity. This “political-system hostility” leads China and those states that deem China’s political system hopelessly flawed to act and react toward each other in ways they would otherwise not do. Such interaction is fraught with consequences, both intended and unintended, for the actions and reasons of the Chinese state. I will examine the political and normative stakes in political-system hostility and discuss what approach to political-system differences is most conducive to peace and democracy.

This is the first of five lectures that Professor Ci Jiwei will give in the series Democracy and China: Philosophical-Political Reflections

Democracy and China Workshop flyer

Sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies