Luo Longji and the Fate of Chinese Liberalism, 1919–1965 release_rev_004fba36-7545-4ed6-b20b-13331369c74a

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> This article investigates the personal history of Luo Longji, a distinguished Chinese liberal in the twentieth century. A controversial figure, Luo has two contradictory images in history: a democratic warrior and an enemy of the people. The two contrasting images, this article argues, reveal a fundamental dilemma of twentieth-century Chinese liberalism, which tries to reconcile the tension between the protection of individual freedom and a quest for a strong nation-state based on popular sovereignty. Defining himself as a disciple of Harold Laski, Luo reinterpreted the latter's political ideas in a new historical context. On the one hand, Luo applauded individual disobedience of the despotic state and protested Chiang Kai-shek's autocracy in favour of human rights and freedom. On the other, Luo's nationalist fervour deeply shaped his liberal programme, hoping for a democratic nation-state as the guardian of people's rights and freedom. This national liberalism led him to cast aside Laski's anti-statist pluralism and instead exalt state sovereignty to represent the Chinese people's general will. As a result, Luo was made an enemy in the 1950s by the democratic and constitutional polity he actively helped to build. Chinese liberalism was thus defeated by its own logic in Mao's China.
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