NCJ Number
231261
Journal
Criminal Justice Studies Volume: 23 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2010 Pages: 163-176
Date Published
June 2010
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study explored the Chinese peoples' pursuit of human rights in a Hegelian framework by examining the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, the Falun Gong group, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Abstract
Since 1991, the Chinese Government has issued a series of papers concerning human rights and related problems, as well as signing two formal treaties in 1997 and 1998 in an attempt to come to grips with the issues pertinent to the subject. This paper does not focus on the Chinese state; rather, it considers the meager scholarship that attempts to apply Hegel to contemporary China, and explores Chinese people's pursuit of human rights in a Hegelian framework. By studying the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, Falun Gong, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it toes a middle-ground between Western critics and scholars to illuminate how Chinese people's pursuit of human rights has been informed by Western ideas as well as Confucianism and other Chinese philosophies. While this paper appropriates the Hegelian concept of right, it also relies on his dialectic view of human history to add to the existing criticisms of his warped, Orientalist view of Chinese society. Notes and references (Published Abstract)