Confucianism versus liberalism over minority rights: A critical response to will Kymlicka

Journal of Chinese Philosophy

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 103-123

  He, Baogang ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33745012361     PISSN: 03018121     EISSN: 15406253     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6253.2004.00145.x     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. A library search for a combination of words "Confucianism" and "minority rights" finds little in several data sources. And no article is devoted to the topic of minority rights in Wm. Theodore de Bary and Tu Weiming (eds.), Confucianism and Human Rights (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998)
2. Thomas Heberer, for example, applies a liberal idea of minority rights and social justice in his study of the minority issue in China. He criticizes China's immigration policy and argues that "in the long run such a hard line and its effects may be the ultimate block to the unity of the country." See Thomas Heberer, China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy and Assimilation (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1989), p. 131
3. Also see Baogang He, "Can W. Kymlicka's Liberal Theory of Minority Rights Be Applied in East Asia?" in New Developments in Asian Studies, edited by Paul van der Velde and Alex McKay (London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1998), pp. 20-44
4. Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 194-195
5. Surely, there are different versions of communitarianism. The Japanese version differs from the Chinese. And the Tibetan communitarian argument can support their demands for protection of their culture and even their demands for nationhood. Moreover, China is not purely a Confucian society. China's minority policies contain mixed elements of Confucianism, pragmatism, Marxism, and liberalism
6. Liberal traditions have been divided on the minority issue. While Hobhouse has paid attention to minority rights, Rawls and Dworkin have entirely neglected it. See Will Kymlicka, Liberalism, Community and Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 3-5
7. Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship, p. 6
8. Kymlicka charges Rawls with a failure to discuss cultural rights and membership on the ground that Rawls assumes that a political community is culturally homogeneous. Kymlicka, Liberalism, Community and Culture, p. 166
9. See Kymlicka, "Rawls on Teleology and Deontology," Philosophy and Public Affairs, 17, no. 3 (1988), 173-190
10. Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983)
11. For example, some people in Australia apply for minority benefits through identifying themselves as aboriginal. As a result, the number of the aboriginal community has dramatically increased in recent years
12. See Chandran Kukathas, "Are There Any Cultural Rights?" Political Theory, 20, no. 1 (1992), 105-139, 114, and 116
13. Brian Barry, Culture and Equality (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001), p. 147
14. Bhiku Parehk, Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000)
15. J. Waldron, "Minority Rights and the Cosmopolitan Alternative," in W. Kymlicka (ed.), The Rights of Minority Cultures (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 106
16. James Tully, Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 30
17. Jiang Yinliang (ed.), Zhongguominzushi (The History of Chinese Nationalities) (Beijing: Nationality Publisher, 1990), pp. 138-145, on the Tusi system
18. June Teufel Dreyer, China's Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People's Republic of China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), p. 10
19. See Feng Erkang, The Biography of Yongzheng (Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu yinshuguan, 1992), pp. 386-399
20. Also see Derk Bodde, "Harmony and Conflict in Chinese Thought," in Arthur Wright (ed.), Studies in Chinese Thought (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 46-47
21. Herber, China and Its National Minorities, p. 18
22. This is true of German, French, and English cultures, although the British colonial policies were much less assimilationist than French ones. China shares a lot in common with Germany, France, and England who insist on the necessity of assimilation
23. His remark on my paper presented at Asian Minorities and Western Liberalism workshop, 14 January 2003, the National University of Singapore
24. Liu Houqing, "Confucianism and Han Wu Emperor's Nationality Policy," Qinghai Social Sciences, no. 2 (1999), 98-102
25. See John Fincher, "China as a Race, Culture, and Nation: Notes on Fang Hsiao-ju's Discussion of Dynastic Legitimacy," Transition and Permanence: Chinese History and Culture, edited by David C. Buxbaum and Frederick W. Mote, p. 59
26. Liu Zehua (ed.), The History of Chinese Political Thought: Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing (Hangzhou: Zhejiang People's Press, 1996), pp. 457-473
27. Sun Yat-sen, Selected Works of Sun Yat-sen (Beijing: People Press, 1981), p. 592
28. also cited in Victor Louis, The Coming Decline of The Chinese Empire (New York: Times Books, 1979), p. 114
29. Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 3 (Beijing: People Press, 1966), p. 1033
30. Selected Documents of Central Committee of the CCP (Vol. 7, 1931), reprinted by the Central Data Library (Beijing: the Central Party School Press, 1991), pp. 775-776. In Louis's translation, he stresses "their (national minorities) right to complete separation from China, and to the formation of an independent state for each national minority."
31. See Louis, The Coming Decline, pp. 114-115
32. Yang Jingchu and Wang Geliu, "Woguo de minzu quyu zizhi: Mao Zedong dui Marxism's minzu lilun de gongxian" ("National Regional Autonomy in China: Mao Zedong's Contribution to Marxist Theory of Nationality") Minzu yanjiu (Nationality Study), no. 1 (1994), 1-8
33. See Chen Yanbin, Liu Jianzhong, and Qiao Li, "Mao Zedong sixiang minzu lilun yanjiu huigu" ("Review of the Studies on Mao Zedong Thought about Nationalities"), Heilongjiang minzu congkan (Heilongjiang Nationality Series) (Ha'erbin), no. 4 (1998), 33-38
34. W. Smith, "China's Tibetan Dilemma," The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, 14, no. 1 (1990), 78
35. Ma Xing and Zhong He, "Minzu quyu zizhi yanjiu huigu" ("Review of the Studies on National Regional Autonomy") Heilongjiang minzu congkan (Heilongjiang Nationality Series) (Ha'erbin), March 1998, pp. 29-38
36. Sun Yat-sen, Selected Works of Sun Yat-sen, pp. 586, 588
37. See Yang Houdi, Wang Ping, and Sui Qing, Equality, Autonomy and Development: the Chinese Model of Protecting Minority Rights (Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe, 1998)
38. Ma Yang, "Reconsideration on the Discourse on National Blending," Strategy and Management, no. 5 (2002), 103-111
39. For a discussion of Chinese theories of autonomy, see Baogang He, "Why Does Beijing Reject the Dalai Lama Autonomy Proposal?" Review of Asian and Pacific Studies (Seikei University, Japan), no. 22 (2001), 61-63
40. and for a discussion of Chinese views on human rights and democracy, see Baogang He, The Democratisation of China (London: Routledge, 1996), chapter 4
41. Chung-Ying Cheng, "Transforming Confucian Virtues into Human Rights," in de Bary and Tu Weiming (eds.), Confucianism and Human Rights, p. 147
42. See Barry Sautman, "Affirmative Action, Ethnic Minorities and China's Universities," Working Papers in the Social Sciences, no. 13, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 20 May 1997
43. Joseph Chan, "A Confucian Perspective on Human Rights for Contemporary China," in Joanne R. Bauer and Daniel A. Bell (eds.), The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 212-237, in particular, p. 228 and p. 233
44. For a discussion of Confucian communitarianism, see Wm. Theodore de Bary, Asian Values and Human Rights: A Confucian Communitarian Perspective (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998)