Paper: Debating Decisionism: Chinese Receptions of Carl Schmitt Since 1929

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese scholars of law and politics have found inspiration in the works of the influential conservative German legal and political theorist Carl Schmitt (1888-1985). Representing a larger shift away from traditional debates framed on the opposition of orthodox Marxism and Anglo-American liberalism, Schmitt’s views have broadened the scope of discourse on issues such as the Party’s supremacy over the State, the value of judicial constitutionalism, China’s relationship with international law, etc.

With good reason, various observers have also detected a Schmittian ethos at work in the recent changes to Chinese law and governance under Xi Jinping, in particular the 2018 constitutional amendments strengthening the Party’s—and Xi’s own—political role. This article assesses Schmitt’s influence in current Chinese debates on law and politics, while for the first time putting recent discourse in the context of a longer history of Schmitt receptions by Chinese intellectuals beginning during the Nanjing Decade (1928-1937). As is apparent, the diversity of Chinese readings of Schmitt’s thought is accompanied by considerable continuity in their major themes, including the critique of judicial constitutionalism, the search for the locus of sovereign authority in the Chinese context, and the competition for regional hegemony.