The impact of Western forms of social control on China

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Western forms of social control on China. It first documents Western influences on Chinese law-making, policing, corrections, legal education, and control techniques under Qing, the KMT, and the CCP. It then analyzes the imperatives on and motivations from the Chinese to borrow Western control ideas and practices through modernization, denial of ethnocentrism, and participation in the world community. The channels through which Western forms of social control break into China are identified as third-party countries, communications, exchanges, and carry-in by imperialists and investors. In the end, Westernization, socialism, and Chinese characteristics are brought together to reflect upon possible changes in Chinese social control between de-politicization and politicization of offenses, pervasive surveillance of thoughts and acts and exclusive control of deviant and criminal behavior, informal and formal justice, crime control and due process, and rehabilitation and just deserts. The central points are: (1) Western impact on Chinese social control is a part of Western dominance in the global political economy; (2) Western influence helps China develop a legal and social control system which lends protection to individual rights but undermines various community-or virtue-based control measures which have proved effective and humane in maintaining harmony and order; and (3) As it continues modernization through foreign investments, trades, technological exchanges, and international participation, China will have to import more Western social control ideas and means to deal with its social reality increasingly similar to that of the West.