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On Responsibility in China: Understanding and Practice

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Abstract

“Responsibility” in Chinese consists of two words: “ze” (责, charge) and “ren” (任, office). In modern Chinese, although the two words “ze” and “ren” are mostly used as one word, people can still discern the close relationship between ze and right and between ren and the duty associated with a position or a power. In modern life, however, there is a serious problem with these historically close, key relationships. This paper raises the crucial question: how should we understand and deal with the separation of freedom from responsibility, right from obligation, and duty from power, particularly within China? The first part of the paper investigates the understanding of responsibility and concepts of duty, obligation, right, and power in the Chinese context. The second part analyzes the key issues of responsibility associated with the expansion of rights and powers in today’s China. The concluding part explores agents’ responsibilities on different levels and offers suggestions on how to cultivate responsibility as part of a systematic moral education.

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Notes

  1. Ci Hai (1979, p. 1307).

  2. Ci Hai (1979, p. 194).

  3. Ci Hai (1979, p. 1966).

  4. Cf. Young (2003, p. 54).

  5. Xian Dai Han Yu Ci Dian (Modern Chinese Dictionary) (1999, p. 1574).

  6. De George (2010, p. 99).

  7. Xian Dai Han Yu Ci Dian (Modern Chinese Dictionary) (1999, p.1048).

  8. Cf. Donaldson (1989, p. 66).

  9. Cf. Lexikon der Wirtschaftsethik, Verlag Herder Freihurg im Breisgau 1993; Chinese version, Shanghai People’s Publishing House 2001, p. 288.

  10. Ibid (p. 290).

  11. Xian Dai Han Yu Ci Dian (Modern Chinese Dictionary) (1999, p. 1048).

  12. De George (2010. p. 76).

  13. Boatright (2007, pp. 37–38).

  14. Enderle (1996, pp. 43–65).

  15. Nunner-Winkler (1993).

  16. Donaldson (1989, p. 66).

  17. Shuming Liang (1863–1988), modern Chinese scholar who was famous as the “last Confucian in China”.

  18. Cf. Lu (2009, pp. 452–453).

  19. Cf. Lu (2008a).

  20. Marx (1998, p. 395),

  21. Marx (1998, p. 389).

  22. Lu (2008b, p. 103).

  23. Although some months later after the case sentence, Peng Yu admitted that he did rush the old woman, the question, the debate, and the uncertainty introduced by this case have persisted regardless of what actually occurred that day on the street.

  24. Cf. Enderle (2001, p. 29).

  25. Cf. Lexikon der Wirtschaftsethk, Chinese version, pp. 541–543; Richard T. De George’s discussion of the relevant topics, Business Ethics, Chinese version, p. 29.

  26. http://video.sina.com.cn/p/finance/20111227/235161625471.html.

  27. Lu (2008a).

  28. De George (2010, p. 106).

  29. Ibid.

  30. http://tea.fjsen.com/view/2011-12-14/show27167.html.

  31. Cf. Enderle (2001, p. 31).

  32. China Corporate Citizen Network: http://www.chinacccc.org/ established by China Committee of Corporate Citizenship (CCCC), which is the national association of corporations approved by the China Ministry of Civil Affairs.

  33. Lu (1999, p. 204) and Lu (2012).

  34. Cf. van Luijk (2005, p. 501).

  35. Jinwei (2007, p. 12).

  36. Ibid.

  37. The China Youth Daily (2010, July 12). http://news.sohu.com/20100712/n273432933_1.shtml.

  38. The Implementation of the Program of Citizen Morality (IPCM), 24 Oct. 2001.

  39. The Implementation of the Program of Citizen Morality (IPCM), 24 Oct. 2001.

  40. Xinhua News Review: Corruption behind the multinational well-known brands’ public relations crisis, http://news.sohu.com/20050622/n226038110.shtml.

  41. For example, according to the Bulletin providing primary data from China’s second general national economic survey, at the end of 2008, there were 4.959 million units of enterprise legal persons, up by 1.709 million from 2004, an increase of 52.6 %.

  42. Corporate Law of the People’s Republic of China (2005 Amendment).

  43. Cf. SASAC (2008), CFIE (2008), and SFEO (2011).

  44. Cf. Xinhua News review, “There Is Corruption Behind Public Management", http://www.ce.cn/ztpd/xwzt/guonei/2004/fangfu/plfx/200506/21/t20050621_4074044.shtml.

  45. Siemens China: Values and Vision, http://w1.siemens.com.cn/en/about_us/ourvalues.asp.

  46. Brown (2007, p. 242).

  47. Solomon (1992, p. 149).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 1610 West Zhongshan Road, Shanghai, 200235, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaohe Lu

  2. University of St. Thomas, 1000 LaSalle Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, 55403, USA

    Daryl Koehn

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  1. Xiaohe Lu
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  2. Daryl Koehn
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Correspondence to Xiaohe Lu.

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Lu, X., Koehn, D. On Responsibility in China: Understanding and Practice. J Bus Ethics 127, 607–622 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2063-5

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