中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumThe Roots of Constitutional Governance are Now Developing in China
Authors: Yuan Weishi
Date: 29 janvier 2007
Published by Southern Metropolis Daily, A2
A translation follows of roughly two-thirds of Yuan’s editorial, including his criticism of lingering leftist tendencies in China and his call for deeper political reform:
The Roots of Constitutional Governance Are Now Developing in China
The core of constitutional governance is protecting the rights and freedom of citizens; rule of law is the basic path toward protecting the rights and interests of citizens. The knowledge of citizen rights and interests is awakening, and the avenues for safeguarding one’s own rights and interests are gradually opening. Cases of rights violations can be found everywhere. But the victims are no longer silent. They seek out lawyers. They seek out the media. They seek out the courts, the people’s congresses, Political Consultative Congress [representatives] and government offices. The criticisms, revelatory speech and petitions show us a game of strategies (博弈) between rule of law and unlawful governance.
A citizen society – civic organizations are indispensable domains in which citizens may voice their wishes. Fifteen years ago, they were still places where scholars could discuss the classics and talk about things that were taboo in their actual lives. Today they are developing uninhibited in many areas [of society].
Without systems in place to check violations of the constitution there can be no true constitutional governance. If constitutional law cannot be realized in the legal system, then violations of the constitution cannot be dealt with in a regularized fashion. Calls for a system to dissolve conflict and protect the rights and interests of the people are echoing and reechoing, and the emergence of such a system cannot again be pushed off.
It has already been 100 years since the Qing Dynasty declared in 1906 that it was « preparing to implement constitutionalism ». The establishment and improvement of a system of constitutional governance is, in any nation, a two-sided process of interaction between leaders and the people. To move ahead [with building a constitutional system] we need people who care about the fate of their nation and who will each do their part, working diligently. We also need historic vision and minds like that of Deng Xiaoping …
This document in different languages
- English: doc_701.pdf (110 KiB)
- Chinese: doc_702.pdf (180 KiB)