On course to master the intricacies of China’s laws
- Programmes offered at Hong Kong universities address the need to better understand China’s legal system
Come mid-century, Chinese President Xi Jinping hopes China will achieve two “centennial goals”. The first milestone, to be completed by 2021, the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), is to have built a moderately prosperous society. That requires doubling China's 2010's per capita GDP to US$10,000. Secondly, the CPC aims to “build a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious” by the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China – in 2049.
Success would likely help elevate China to the status of a high-income country and superpower. However, succeeding means the country must not only sustain impressive levels of economic growth, but also adapt and reform its legal system – one that in the past, and arguably even now, still falls prey to miscarriages of justice, bribery and a lack of public and international trust.
China’s remarkable economic development over the last 30 years has already resulted in many changes to laws on the mainland. And such changes require that anyone who wants to do business with the People's Republic must stay abreast of the latest reforms.
As China becomes ever more important within the global economy, understanding its laws within a global context is increasingly vital. To cater to an increasing demand, universities in Hong Kong are offering a variety of courses that are addressing a need both in Hong Kong and internationally for a more comprehensive understanding of Chinese laws and regulations.
“China's rapidly increasing global presence, evidenced by the Belt and Road Initiative, will eventually lead to an 'export' and 'internationalisation' of Chinese law,” says professor Lutz-Christian Wolff, dean of the faculty of law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). “As a result, Chinese law must be understood in a global context.”
It is for this reason that many university programmes are now placing special emphasis on the cross jurisdictional and international features of Chinese law. This is especially true at CUHK, where the subject is not taught in isolation but from a comparative, cross-jurisdictional and international perspective, “to reflect how Chinese law functions in the modern world”, according to Wolff.
