Thursday, April 9, 2015

News and Commentaires, 15-04-09

Zhu Suli is a professor at Peking University Law School

This is a speech professor Zhu given in late March organized by CITIC Press Group and Renmin University. It is the first speech in “CITIC Lecture, China’s Paths Series”. Professor Zhu discussed his simplified definition of rule of law, why China’s social transformation needs rule of law and some problems faced with rule of law. (The theme is not the most original, but I appreciate Professor Zhu’s accessible way of lecturing, and his pragmatic view that rule of law is primarily beneficial, if not instrumental to China’s economic development. Of course, reflecting on the current wave of feminist enlightenment, Professor Zhu might be another patient of “straight man cancer” - a typical patriarchal male intellectual - he justifies the idea that daughters in the countryside are not entitled for inheritance because they are given dawdry when they got married and they don’t take care of their parents after they marry.)

Some of his quotes:
1, However, in terms of rule of law, in my view, it is an orderly way of life in society. In the words that Chinese people are most used to, it is rules. There should be rules everywhere.
1, 但法治,在我看来,是整个社会有序的生活状态。用中国人最习惯的话讲,就是有规矩,方方面面都要有规矩。

2, (About the issue of food and drug safety, it requires more sophisticated and strict rule of law). However, we need to have a more realistic and deeper understanding of this issue. Many people think that this problem is because Chinese people are morally corrupted and there is a general moral decay. I think this judgment is wrong. In my view, Chinese people’s morality hasn’t changed much. The problem is that before the majority of Chinese people lived in small circles where there was enough pressure on people’s morality and emotion from the community’s opinions. However, there is huge revolution on China’s society today. We face a much larger group that is constituted by a huge number of strangers. Our previous sense of morality can’t guide us powerfully through this gigantic market. Human beings lived in small groups in the beginning everywhere in the world, no matter in the gather hunting period or farming period. We felt natural responsibility towards our family. However, when there are consumers from far away who are completely strangers, we can’t invoke this natural sense of responsibility. This is a characteristic, not necessarily a weakness, though there is lots of flaws because of this in market economy.
是食品药品安全问题。这也要求更细致严格的法治。但对这个问题需要有更现实和透彻的理解。许多人认为,这些问题是中国人的道德败坏、衰退引发的。我认为这个判断基本错了。在我看来,中国人的道德水平其实基本没有什么大的波动,问题出在,先前绝大多数中国人生活在小群体中,那是人的道德情感和社区舆论压力通常就足以应对的。但如今中国的社会变革了,我们面对的是一个由极大数量陌生人构成的广大群体,我们原来的道德感已经没法强有力地指导我们面对这个广大市场的决策。人类从一开始是生活在小群体中,无论是在狩猎时代还是农耕时代,我们可能自发产生的责任感是爱我们的亲人。而当我们面对远方的不在见面的陌生消费者时,我们没法涌起这种在小群体中会自然发生的责任感。这只是人的一个特点,算不上是缺点,尽管在市场经济条件下会有种种弊端。

3, The complete rule of law is indeed a necessity in Chinese society. From this perspective, this is a political decision, but not just due to political consideration, but rather a political judgment based on the change of mode of production in China’s economy, change of social management and social transformation. It is a political decision based on concrete problems China is facing. It is not that rule of law is holy and grand so we should have the complete rule of law. It is simply that if they want to manage China well, they have to deal with this problem. This rule of law is actually a functional requirement for market economy. It is a requirement for social transformation. The whole general public needs the society to be of rule of law and to be more orderly.
3, 全面依法治国确实是中国社会发展的必须。从这一点看,这是一个政治性的决定,却又不只是出于政治的考量,而是基于中国经济生产方式转变、社会治理方式转变、社会转型做出的一个政治性判断,是针对中国的具体问题做出的政治性的决定。不是说法治很高大上,所以我们要全面法治,而是说,只要想把中国治好,就必须要解决这个问题。这个法治是市场经济的功能要求,是整个社会转型的要求。全体民众都需要社会更加法治,更加有序。



1, In the afternoon of April 8th, Mr. Qiu Yong, director of Tsinghua University met up with Chief Editor of People’s Daily Mr. Li Baoshan. They communicated on ideas to construct Tsinghua University’s School of Journalism and Broadcasting.
4月8日下午,清华大学校长邱勇会见了到访的人民日报社总编辑李宝善,双方就共建清华大学新闻与传播学院的工作进行了交流。

2, Li Baoshan reviewed the cooperation between People’s Daily and Tsinghua University. He said that this time seven members from People’s Daily were assigned to Tsinghua to give lectures. They discussed many issues including internal and external broadcast, traditional and emerging media, and media integration.
2, 李宝善回顾了人民日报社与清华大学合作的情况。他说,此次人民日报社派出7位社领导组成的授课团队,从对内、对外宣传,传统媒体与新兴媒体,媒体融合等多方面讲授课程。

3, After the meeting, Li Baoshan gave a lecture to students from Tsinghua Journalism and Broadcasting School on “Marxist Views of News and the Party’s Journalism Guideline”. This lecture is the first one of the course Marxist Views of News.
3,会见结束后,李宝善为新闻与传播学院学生做了题为“马克思主义新闻观和党的新闻工作方针原则”的讲座,该讲座是新闻与传播学院本科课程《马克思主义新闻观》的一讲。


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