Abstract
When looking into the younger history of China, many calls are found concerning, in one way or another, the rule of law. The need to further improve the rule of law was expressed not only by foreign entrepreneurs, especially by those from the Western hemisphere, but also by other representatives of the so-called Western civilization.
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- 1.
Starting in 1978.
- 2.
P.R. China excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.
- 3.
Followed by domestic consumption, labor costs, unfair competition and monopolies, and the implementation of environmental regulations.
- 4.
EUCCC (2012), 28.
- 5.
EUCCC (2012), 5.
- 6.
Uncertainty and ambiguity of regulations when doing business in China.
- 7.
EUCCC (2012), 5, 31.
- 8.
The full name of the paper is: China 2030—Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society.
- 9.
World Bank (2012), vii.
- 10.
World Bank (2012), viii.
- 11.
World Bank (2012), 18.
- 12.
World Bank (2012), 18.
- 13.
E.g., World Bank (2012), 20.
- 14.
Deng’s speech from December 13, 1978, ch. II par. 9.
- 15.
- 16.
Art. 5 par. 1 Chinese Constitution: “The People’s Republic of China practices ruling the country in accordance with the law and building a socialist country of law.”
- 17.
- 18.
Eckholm, New York Times, November 21, 2000.
- 19.
Wang and Cheung, South China Morning Post (March 8, 2003).
- 20.
China Daily (December 4, 2012).
- 21.
See in detail Sect. 2.2.
- 22.
China is the worldwide leading country in terms of social inequality. The gap between the rich and the poor in China has reached a very critical scale. A Gini index above 0.4 (which China reached in 2000 already) is deemed to be a danger for social peace. See http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI (accessed on 8 Mar 2014). According to newer studies, China reached the value of 0.61 in November 2012. http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/essayunddiskurs/2034698/ (accessed on 20 Sept 2014).
- 23.
See NYT-IW November 12, 2012, p. 3. For the big (508,000 in 2010) and steadily rising number of Chinese leaving China every year especially to the USA but also to other 33 developed countries. According to an online survey conducted by the Chinese Web site sina.com, 88 % of the 7,000 respondents would like to emigrate if they had this opportunity. See Strittmatter, SZ November 2, 2012, 3.
- 24.
See NYT-IW November 12, 2012, p. 3.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
E.g., on February 15, 2014, in Beijing fine particulate matter exceeded 500 microgram per cubic meter. This value is 50 times higher than value of 10 microgram per cubic meter set by the World Health Organization as an absolute limit. See Strittmatter, SZ February 26, 2014, 8.
- 27.
WANG Yuesi (atmosphere physicist and member of a working group on reduction of pollution in Beijing) in Strittmatter, SZ January 21, 2013, 8.
- 28.
Meaning the Constitution of the former “West Germany” (Federal Republic of Germany), which became the Constitution of the whole, reunified present-day Germany in 1990.
- 29.
The Constitution was actually drafted by the members of the so-called Parlamentarischer Rat (Parliamentary Council), which reflected the German population. But it was subjected to the approval of the Western allied forces and thus strongly influenced by their views and visions. The former Soviet Union exerted its influence solely in the Russian Sector of postwar Germany, which became the German Democratic Republic in 1949.
- 30.
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy.
- 31.
Especially a very strict separation of power (see Sect. 4.1.1) and extensive protection of fundamental rights (see Sect. 4.3.2). For the last-mentioned aspect Tamanaha (2004), 108 states that “the German version of the rule of law, the Rechtsstaat, manifests dramatically the tensions between democracy and individual rights”.
References
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Eckholm E (2000) China signs U.N. pact on rights and rule of law. New York Times, 21 Nov 2000. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/21/world/china-signs-un-pact-on-rights-and-rule-of-law.html. Accessed 20 Sept 2014
Jiang Zemin (1997) Report at the 15th National Congress of the CPC on 12 Sept 1997 Chinese available at http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2002-10-22/1404777724.html. Accessed 20 Sept 2014 English available at http://www.fas.org/news/china/1997/970912-prc.htm. Accessed 20 Sept 2014
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Blasek, K. (2015). Introduction. In: Rule of Law in China. SpringerBriefs in Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44622-5_1
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