To Understand China, Look Behind Its Laws (Excerpts)

• Author: NORM PAGE

WHENEVER a Western official criticizes China for its record on human rights, the reply comes back that China is a sovereign country and doesn’t respond to such finger-pointing. There are real differences between different countries’ interests and values that cannot be wished away.

But there are also many areas where China and the United States face similar social problems and share fundamental interests.

I’ve become acutely aware of this while living in Shanghai for the past four years, practicing law in an American firm and teaching at two Chinese law schools. My Chinese students most are from small towns and villages throughout eastern China. There are also Americans in their 20s. Each group’s members want to know what their counterparts are thinking.

In the spring semester, I asked my students to choose from a list of several United States Supreme Court cases covering different fundamental rights and offer comment. The ones below were the most popular.

Kelo v. City of New London (2005)

This is a classic case of balancing private property rights and the public good. The Supreme Court found that economic development under the city’s plan would not violate the Fifth Amendment (which prohibits the taking of private property for public use “without just compensation”) solely because there was some private gain. My Chinese students would have added another consideration: such private gain and fair compensation would have to be shown to be free from corruption.

In both American and Chinese law, “just compensation” is required when the government takes property for a public purpose. In China, there was until recently no market at all, and government officials exercise wide discretion and can have inordinate power — one reason that anger at corrupt government officials now is a consideration in the way law students think about basic fairness.

Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)

I tell my students that if they want to understand modern American society, they should study both the evolving idea of equal protection and...