Chinese Politics and the New Theory of “Rule of Law”

In light of widespread western condemnation of the Tiananmen Square event, it may seem somewhat capricious to raise the issue of the “rule of law” as it is understood in China; however, prior to 4 June the Chinese Communist Party sanctioned a provocative theoretical debate which featured the “rule of law” as opposed to the “rule of man.” Even though the Chinese rule of law derived self-consciously from Chinese ideology and history, it seemed to parallel loosely the substantive concern in the western theoretical notion of “government of laws, not men.”