The buzzing flies of the West

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By David Bandurski | Posted on 2015-02-13

The following piece, published on Monday this week on the website of the official Party journal Seeking Truth, arguably speaks to the heart of China’s current political and ideological ethos. The piece pulls together quite disparate threads — an article from the Financial Times‘ Beijing bureau chief Jamil Anderlini, and a report almost a year ago from Bank of America Merrill Lynch — to paint a stark picture of foreign “hostile forces” colluding with domestic “agents” to foment a color revolution on Chinese soil.

The Seeking Truth piece, written by Hou Lihong ( 侯立虹 ), identified as a local government employee from Henan, speaks well enough, and colourfully enough, for itself. So I’ll avoid the temptation to say more.

Readers not new to hardline bombast of this kind will recognize the teeth-grinding, vitriolic tone. Hou writes at one point of “evil collusion between [overseas] master and [domestic] servant, and of “hostile forces working within China.” Voices like Anderlini and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are “flies flicking against the wall, droning on and on.”

Please enjoy.

http://cmp.hku.hk/2015/02/13/38191/

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1. China at rule-of-law turning point By Francesco Sisci

Establishing the rule of law is one of the pillars of Chinese President Xi Jinping's reform program, and surely one of the most important, for without confidence in the legal system, many other things will go wrong. Private capital markets depend on the rule of law, but the problem goes deeper: if ordinary citizens do not believe in the fairness of the legal system, they will feel less like citizens and more like imperial subjects. Social cohesion depends on the rule of law.

For China, the rule of law is a modern concept and to a great extent a Western import. In the Western model, the efficacy of law requires a sense of responsibility towards the state on the part of ordinary citizens. It is not simply a matter of the state providing justice from the top down, but rather a complex of mutual obligations between state and citizens.

Precisely this sense of responsibility for the state is difficult to identify in traditional Chinese culture. The obligations of traditional China were compelling: the Chlaw requires a sense of responsibility towards the state on the part of ordinary citizens. It is not simply a matter of the state providing justice from the top down, but rather a complex of mutual obligations between state and citizens.

Precisely this sense of responsibility for the state is difficult to identify in traditional Chinese culture. The obligations of traditional China were compelling: the Chinese had a strong sense of duty to family, to friends, to the emperor, to the boss. The modern concept of "state" itself is an innovation for the Chinese. The standard Chinese translation of "state," namely guojia, does not capture the meaning of a term derived from the verb "to be." Instead, the term guojia derives from the words for families/clans (jia) and walled territory (guo).[1]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-180215.html