Liberalism in contemporary China: Questions, strategies, directions

This article will examine the strategies by which a number of intellectuals in China have staked out a liberal position in their work over the last decade, doing so in the face of opposition not only from rival intellectual groups but also the state’s ideological machinery. The writings of these intellectuals take up themes inherent to the liberal political tradition, including democracy, individual rights, and the rule of law. Collectively, they seek to revive liberal ideas as the basis for future political reforms, working at a time when New Left and New Confucian discourses have risen to positions of prominence in intellectual circles, each of which reinforce the cultural nationalism of the Chinese government in their own ways. In responding to this intellectual landscape, liberal thinkers have reckoned with four major areas of concern in their work: the meaning of China’s 20th-century history, particularly the Cultural Revolution; the social inequality created by market reforms; statism as a discourse of power that openly rejects Euro-American political models; and cultural pluralism as a grounding idea for 21st-century China.