Oakeshott, Hayek and the Conservative Turn of Chinese Liberalism

Liberalism was first introduced to China in the late 19th century. Some leading Chinese intellectuals of the late Qing Dynasty who were eager to find a modern political model to help strengthen and reform China in response to the challenges of imperialism found liberalism as one promising western ideology for that purpose. Although pre-War Chinese liberals were neither the most revolutionary nor profound amongst the intellectuals who wanted to modernize China, they, being inspired by the ethos of the Enlightenment and the success of modern science, nevertheless were highly critical of the traditional Chinese culture, believing that without getting rid of the latter (i.e. by a well-designed plan for total westernization), China would remain authoritarian, backward, anti-science and feudal.

Hayek’s critique of constructivism has started to reverse the rationalistic tendency of Chinese liberalism after the War. To start with, Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom has a far-reaching impact on the Chinese liberals. In the 1950s, many Chinese liberals in Taiwan, including Hu Shih—the most prominent amongst them, were convinced by Hayek’s arguments that without economic liberty, political liberty is chimerical. When mainland China was opened up to the world in the 1980s, mainland intellectuals found Hayek’s warnings in The Road to Serfdom nothing short of prophetic, spelling out the horrors of socialist central planning decades before what many of them personally underwent during the Cultural Revolution.

Later on, Oakeshott’s critique of the sovereignty of technical knowledge and his emphasis on the indispensability of practical knowledge in all human activities have reminded the Chinese liberals of the importance of those non-rational, unarticulated elements in one’s tradition when it comes to reform and political action. This contributes to a conservative turn in Chinese liberalism, which has developed a far less hostile attitude towards the traditional Chinese culture in general and Confucianism in particular.

In both Hayek’s and Oakeshott’s political philosophy, the rule of law is regarded not only as an essential element in the protection of liberty within a political community that treasures continuity, it is also believed that it constitutes the political identity of the citizens concerned. Benefitted from this theoretical insight, some Chinese liberals have started to reexamine the history of constitutionalism in modern China, arguing that attempts for the limited pursuit of political constitutionalism in China are likely to be a better and more sustainable alternative to the comprehensive pursuit of radical transformation of the Chinese society by design.

While Hayek’s theory of the spontaneous order has persuaded many Chinese liberals to abandon their previous commitments to social Darwinism, I wish to conclude that for the more perceptive Chinese, perhaps they should appreciate that Oakeshott’s more skeptical approach is always a good reminder of the dangers of the Tower of Babel, since neither modernity nor capitalism of the consumerist kind is immune from the temptation to seek perfection as the crow flies.