The Nazi Inspiring China’s Communists – The Atlantic
China s fascination with Schmitt took off in the early 2000s when the philosopher Liu Xiaofeng translated the German thinker s major works into Chinese. Dubbed Schmitt fever, his ideas energized the political science, philosophy, and law departments of China s universities. Chen Duanhong, a law professor at Peking University, called Schmitt the most successful theorist to have brought political concepts into his discipline. His constitutional doctrine is what we revere, Chen wrote in 2012, before adding, of his Nazi membership, That s his personal choice. An alum of Peking University s philosophy program, who asked not to be identified speaking on sensitive issues, told me that Schmitt s work was among the common language, a part of the academic establishment at the university.
Schmitt s influence is most evident when it comes to Beijing s policy toward Hong Kong. Since its handover to China from Britain in 1997, the city has ostensibly been ruled under a one country, two systems framework, whereby it would be part of China, but its freedoms, independent judiciary, and other forms of autonomy would be preserved for 50 years. Over time, these freedoms have been eroded as the CCP has sought greater control, and more recently have been undermined completely with the national-security law.
Carl Schmitt is an interesting jurist–well worth reading. He’s admirably clear for one thing.