A Global Turn in Chinese Legal Ideology?

Abstract

The Chinese approach to law and development has been perceived in terms of experimentalism and resistance towards globally applicable development models. In recent years, however, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ideologues and pro-establishment legal scholars have become increasingly ambitious about the global significance of Chinese legal thought. CCP ideologues and Chinese legal scholars’ global ambitions are particularly evident in writings on “Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law.” According to these ideologues and scholars, Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law is the “height of world history and global thought,” and provides a new governance model for developing countries. Yet, while Party ideologues espouse the globally pathbreaking nature of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, they are often unconcerned with describing the specific legal theoretical advantages of this form of legal thought in comparison to existing modes of legal thought. This article argues that CCP ideologues’ global ambitions and the discrepancy between Party ideologues’ ideological and theoretical ambitions should be understood as consequences of domestic Chinese politics. While globally ambitious speech in CCP ideology and pro-establishment legal scholarship reflects China’s international aspirations, it does not aim to persuade foreign audiences about the advantages of Chinese legal thought. Instead, this form of ideological speech aims at producing and reproducing political relationships within the Chinese body politic. Insisting on the global relevance of Chinese legal thought is one method for achieving this goal. At least for now, globally ambitions CCP ideology is domestic in its aspirations.