Review Article Engagement or Confrontation in the Era of Globalization and Democratization

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Susan C. Morris, Trade and Human Rights: The Ethical Dimension in U.S.-China Relations (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), pp.75–78. Ibid., pp. 18–20, 73–5. Ibid., pp. 87, 89–90. Ibid., pp. 25–6. Ibid., pp. 91–2. Ibid., pp. 93–4, p. 97. Ibid., p. 109. Ibid., pp. 111, 124. Ibid., pp. 122–3, 127. Ibid., pp. 116–9. China's contribution to IMF, hence its voting power, has increased significantly in recent years. A recent book by Supachai Panitchpakdi, Director-general of WTO, describes China as an engine of regional growth. See Supachai Panitchpakdi and Mark L. Clifford, China and the WTO (Singapore: John Wiley & Sons [Asia] Pte Ltd., 2002), pp. 115–7. Morris, Trade and Human Rights, p. 120. Ibid., pp.128, 140. Ibid., p. 149. Ibid., pp.154–9. A Chinese perspective on human rights always emphasizes national conditions and developmental needs and focuses on economic, social and cultural rights rather than civil and political rights. As Panitchpakdi and Clifford point out, China has been quite successful in providing its people with basic needs and lifting millions of Chinese out of poverty. See Panitchpakdi and Clifford, China and the WTO, p. 154. Morris, Trade and Human Rights, pp. 157, 159–60. See Panitchpakdi and Clifford, China and the WTO, pp. 61–2. See Nicholas R. Lardy, Integrating China into the Global Economy (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2002), pp. 85–8, 104. Suzanne Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center: Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2002), pp. 14–6. Ibid., pp. 21, 41–6. Kevin O'Brien's study of ‘grassroots democracy’ in China reveals that democratic development in rural China is saddled with traditional values. The peasants' notion of their rights is associated with the traditional view of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled as one of reciprocal obligations. See Kevin O'Brien, ‘Villagers, Elections, and Citizenship,’ in Merle Goldman and Elizabeth J. Perry, Changing Meanings of Citizenship in Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), pp. 212–31. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, pp. 19–21. Ibid., pp. 74–8. Ibid., p. 52. Ibid., p. 82. Ibid., p. 91. Ibid., pp. 83–5. Ibid., pp. 95–6. Ibid., 121–4. The same conclusion is reached by Thomas Lum in his study on the obstacles to democratization in China. He finds that the Chinese people give the highest priority to social stability and economic well-being. See Thomas Lum, Problems of Democratization in China (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2000), p. 69. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, pp. 125, 130. This is confirmed by a recent study on Chinese women by Margaret Woo. See Margaret Woo, ‘Law and the Gendered Citizen’, in Goldman and Perry, Changing Meanings of Citizenship in Modern China, pp. 308–29. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, pp. 138–41. A study by Young Nam Cho confirms that China's local people's congresses have become an increasingly independent power in local politics. See Young Nam Cho, ‘From ‘Rubber Stamps’ to ‘Iron Stamps’: The Emergence of Chinese Local People's Congresses as Supervisory Powerhouses’, The China Quarterly, Vol. 171 (Sept. 2002), pp. 724–40. Michael W. Dowdle's study shows that the NPC is becoming increasingly assertive in exercising its power. See Michael W. Dowdle, ‘Constructing Citizenship: The NPC as Catalyst for Political Participation,’ in Goldman and Perry, Changing Meanings of Citizenship in Modern China, pp. 330–52. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, p. 244. See Tian Yu, ‘Jin 50 wan jian ‘min gao guan’ yiwei zhe shenmo?’ (What is the Significance of Nearly Half a Million Cases of ‘People Suing Government’?) Remin Ribao (People's Daily), Feb. 15, 2003, p. 2. See also Gao Hongjun, ‘Zhongguo gongmin quanli yishi de yanjin’ (Evolution of the Consciousness of Citizen's Rights in China), in Xia Yong et al., Zouxiang Quanli de Shidai (Towards the Era of Rights) (Beijing: Chinese University of Politics and Law Press, 1995), pp. 32–8. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, pp. 291–300, 316. A recent article by Bruce Dickson also noticed an emerging of organized interest groups among China's private entrepreneurs, who use their associations to press for group interests. See Bruce Dickson, ‘Do Good Businessmen Make Good Citizens?’ in Goldman and Perry, Changing Meanings of Citizenship in Modern China, pp. 255–87. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, pp. 180–81. Thomas Lum suggests that most intellectuals in China who are critical of the regime are in fact ‘loyal dissidents’ who advocate gradual political change from above, to avoid social instability and disruptions to economic development. See Lum, Problems of Democratization in China, pp. 128–9. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, pp. 97, 261–2, 313–4. The theory of ‘three representatives’ gives prominence to business people and the intellectuals. The CCP subsequently revised its constitution to allow private entrepreneurs – the bourgeoisie – to join the party. Bruce Dickson points out that the CCP is now increasingly a party of new economic and intellectual elites. See Bruce J. Dickson, ‘Political Instability at the Middle and Lower Levels’, in David Shambaugh, Is China Unstable? (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000), pp. 40–56. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, p. 354. Ibid., pp. 357–61. Ibid., p. 371. Ogden's position that Western countries are faced with the same problem of balance between freedom and equality is supported by John Rawl, the political philosopher whose principles of justice aimed at such a balance. Morris, Trade and Human Rights: The Ethical Dimension in U.S.-China Relations, pp. 154–5. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, p. 24. Ibid., pp. 24, 362. Morris, Trade and Human Rights, p. 155. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, pp. 363–5. Morris, Trade and Human Rights, pp. 2, 142–5. People with knowledge of history tend to take a historical view of the current development. Another example is found in H. Lyman Miller, ‘How Do We Know If China Is Unstable?’ in Shambaugh, Is China Unstable? pp. 18–25. Morris, Trade and Human Rights, p. 144. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, pp. 6, 379. The ‘liberals’ among China's intellectuals may disagree. They have adopted the view that democratization needs to keep pace with economic and social development in order to avoid a ‘participation crisis’. See Yijiang Ding, Chinese Democracy after Tiananmen (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2001), pp.26–7. Morris, Trade and Human Rights, pp. 159–60. Ibid., p. 2. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, p. 231. Morris, Trade and Human Rights, p. 2. Ogden, Inklings of Democracy in China, p. 231. Ibid. p. 363. Barrett McCormick, though regarding China as moving a little too slowly towards democracy, has expressed a similar view by saying that the Western scholars debating on the pace of China's political reform generally ‘agree that China has already taken important steps towards democracy’. See Edward Friedman and Barrett McCormick (eds), What If China Doesn't Democratize? (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000), pp. 4, 339.