Media inquiries: Véronique Rodman
202.862.4870; vrodman@aei.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, July 28, 2008

At a time when global attention is focused once again on China, AEI's Tocqueville on China project offers a fresh look at contemporary Chinese civic culture. While experts tend to analyze the country's economy, foreign and defense policies, human rights record, business practices, corruption levels, environmental policies, and demographics, it is China's underlying civic culture that will, as much as anything, reveal how the Chinese address particular policy issues and how China is likely to develop in the future.

The greatest student of civic culture, Alexis de Tocqueville, used a complex methodology to study the intricacies of American democracy and prerevolutionary France. His observations still represent the gold standard of civic studies. In addition to understanding a regime's general tendencies, Tocqueville examined various facets of society--the law, family, religion, leisure, and economics--not only to see how they interrelated but also, more importantly, to see how they added up to a picture of a civic whole.

Following in the Tocqueville tradition, AEI scholars Dan Blumenthal and Gary J. Schmitt have organized a select group of scholars, policy analysts, and government experts to meet regularly and develop innovative studies that draw out the underlying civic culture of post-Mao China. The goal of the Tocqueville on China project is to better understand the internal forces and pressures shaping China's future. The project consists of a series of working groups and commissioned papers.

The Working Groups

Each private working group is designed to explore an aspect of Chinese civil society. Sessions to date have addressed:

The role of religion in Chinese civil society. Topics of discussion included the resurgence of Christianity in China, the sustained popularity of folk religions, and the Chinese government's efforts to promote Confucianism as the state's unofficial belief system.

The activities and influence of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China. Participants described the challenges of operating effective nonprofit public health organizations in China, given the Chinese Communist Party's many constraints on NGOs. They also debated whether NGO activity could lead to broader civic activism in China.

The complex issue of Chinese nationalism. This session addressed the country's nationalism in the context of China's global ambition, multiethnic empire, and domestic political culture. Discussants included Peter Hays Gries, author of China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy; Suisheng Zhao, author of A Nation-State by Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism; Lowell Dittmer, a prominent analyst of Taiwanese cultural identity; and Dru Gladney, author of Dislocating China: Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects.

Future sessions will focus on the evolving nature of Chinese family life, the ethics of doing business in China today, the rule of law, and legal education in autocratic China.

The Commissioned Papers

Princeton University sinologist Perry Link authored the first paper in the Tocqueville on China essay series. His essay, entitled "Corruption and Indignation: Windows into Popular Chinese Views of Right and Wrong," details the various subtle and subversive ways in which Chinese citizens demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the widespread corruption of government officials.

Carol Lee Hamrin, coeditor of God and Caesar in China: Policy Implications of Church-State Tensions, recently completed the second essay, entitled "China's Protestants: A Mustard Seed for Moral Renewal?" which addresses the resurgent relevance of Protestant Christianity in China.

Robert T. Gannett Jr., author of Tocqueville Unveiled: The Historian and His Sources for The Old Regime and the Revolution and a frequent participant in the Tocqueville on China workshops, will explore the extent to which the Chinese Communist Party's promotion of elections for village committee members has created Tocquevillian schools of local democracy in rural China. The paper will compare this effort with political and civic development in predemocratic Taiwan.

James W. Ceaser, professor of politics at the University of Virginia and award-winning author of Liberal Democracy and Political Science, will contribute a paper on the questions Tocqueville might pose if he were to study China today. The paper will provide a methodological roadmap for future analysis of Chinese civic culture.

In the fifth paper, AEI scholars Dan Blumenthal and Gary J. Schmitt will examine the Chinese Communist Party's recent attempts to revive and promote Confucianism as the unofficial state religion.

The completed papers will be distributed among sinologists and Tocqueville scholars around the country, posted on the project's website (www.aei.org/tocqueville), and published in a collected volume.

Tocqueville on China project leaders Dan Blumenthal and Gary J. Schmitt can be contacted at dblumenthal@aei.org or 202.862.5861 and gschmitt@aei.org or 202.862.5831 (assistant tim.sullivan@aei.org or 202.862.5902).

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