Comparative Law

March 7 2006

Asian Legal Systems: China

Confucius

• 551-479 B.C.• Analects• Li• Fa

Chinese Dynasties

• 221 B.C. -1911

• See handout

• Periodic warlordism and civil war

• But much remained the same

Chinese religions

• Buddhism• Taoism

19th Century China

• Opium War (1839-1842)• European spheres of

influence• Dowager Empress Wu

Cixi• Rebellions (e.g. Taiping,

Boxer)• Failure to reform• Abdication of Pu Yu, the

last Qing Emperor

Early 20th Century China

• World War I

• Nationalists (GMD) – Sun Yatsen, Chiang Kai Shek

• Communists (CCP) Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai

Japanese Invasion

• 1931 Manchuria

• 1934 Long March

• 1937 Attack Beijing

• Unity between Nationalists and Communists

• Occupation except North (Communist)

Peoples Republic of China

• 1949

• Nationalize industry, land redistribuion

• 1951 uprising in Tibet (1959 failed coup)

• 1957 “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom”

• 1958 Great Leap Forward – a disaster

Cultural Revolution

• 1966 reaches Beijing university

• Red Guards

• Gang of Four (Jiang Qing)

• 1976 Mao dies, arrest of Gang of Four

Deng Xiaoping

• In power from late 1970s to 1993 when Jiang Zemin took control

Modern leader

• Jiang stepped down officially in 2002 (but remains powerful behind the scenes)

• Power passed to next generation of technocrats led by Hu Jintao