Abstract
From the perspective of a foreign lawyer who has been closely following China’s efforts since 1978 to develop a sound and comprehensive legal system, the events of June 1989 and their aftermath have been profoundly disheartening. The killings and subsequent reprisals against dissidents in Beijing and elsewhere represent obvious violations of basic human rights. In addition, the actions reportedly taken against a great number of people in the months following June have involved manipulation and, in some cases, outright violation of the very legal process that the leadership has been at such pains to demonstrate was being solidified over the past decade.
The difficult question of how foreign governments and businesses involved in economic contacts with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) should react to the recent events, particularly the moral and political advisability of various forms of sanctions, has been, and will continue to be, extensively debated. This brief comment has a different focus and is directed to issues of specific concern to foreign legal specialists, whether their involvement with the PRC is of a business or academic character. How should we approach exchanges and contacts with our Chinese counterparts? What can those of us engaged in commercial practice in good faith counsel our clients about the likelihood of continuing reform in the PRC legal system and the reliability of the system that has been created up to now? Put more generally, what does the future of law in China look like in the wake of the spring and summer of 1989?