Judging Chairman Mao to be 70% good and 30% bad is evidence of this dynamic, and reveals the dangers of a static view. Even the Great Helmsman's role in history is subject to revision. The time space continuum is very important, which is why snapshots of the system are so dangerous. .
While the Chinese people themselves may have little understanding of where their society is heading, they understand its context. There is an arc to the development of Chinese law and it is grounded in the social system that has sustained China as an entity for millennia. It is not static, but it builds upon a shared foundation. The goal of this essay will be to take a stab at setting out this social and political context. With this premise in mind I leave to my colleagues the dissection of specific new enactments of law in China. Though they have much to tell us, without a frame of reference, without a setting based in history and social relations, they do not satisfy one who wants to understand China. For that one needs an understanding of Chinese history and society. The focus here is on the historical roots of the system, tracing the arc that brought us to this moment. Seeing the distance that the Chinese legal system has travelled may make it easier to put Chinese law today into perspective. This is the first product of my endeavors to trace out this path. The narrative takes China to the middle of the last decade of the 20th century, with a bit of speculation at the conclusion about contemporary events. A more detailed study of the past fifteen years will follow in the future. .
II. Historical Background: Sovereignty's Fall and Rise.
A. The Loss of Central Authority during the Qing 清 Dynasty.
In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reunited China. This event marked the recreation of China as a sovereign entity. Foreign concessions were ended, and, with the important exception of the Russians, British Hong Kong 香港 and Portuguese Macau 澳門, foreign influences were expelled.
