Si Liu

No Liberalism in China? Si Liu

This is a thesis studying why liberalism could not take root in China. By desk research, the author confirmed that Chinese scholars, in history and today, never succeeded in introducing genuine liberalism to China. What China had was a mixed ideology that advocated an ancient concept of freedom closely tied to patriotism, nationalism and Confucianism. Human rights protection by law was not the final end of the advocates. Individual rights were only the tool that encouraged people to save their nations. This was called by CCP regime as "Chinese Liberalism." But even this edited version of Chinese liberalism has been the target of CCP's criticism in the name of bourgeoisie ideology. Scholars today, who expect to introduce liberalism to China as their missions, are found unable to understand liberalism by its original meanings. The author, after an action study concluded that liberalism was welcome by ordinary people in China and teaching of liberalism didn't necessarily have to rely on Chinese scholars, who in fact needed to learn themselves to remove misunderstandings they had all the time.