A number of months ago the China Law Blog did a nice post on the Rule of Law in China. This past weekend I finshed good book related to the subject of that post which just came out by James Mann called The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression.

Some of the book I disagreed with, but other parts of the book I found to be really well done and overall it is a book that is forcing me to rethink some my own learning, biases and conceptions toward China. (In a future post I will discuss Mann’s book; you can use this book as one of your three book reviews if you wish.) A pro-China book, it is not. It also has a very, very good chapter on how we might see/view the upcoming Beijing Olympics as China presents that event and itself to the world.

Having provided the above background, a recent related NY Times aticle, Rivals on Legal Tightrope Seek to Widen Freedoms in China, was published that is very well done and written.

It focuses on two born again Christain attorneys in China, Li Jinsong an Li Jianqiang, who have devoted themelves to expanding freedoms and the rule of law in China. The problems is they cannot get along and agree on strategy. This article, and the lives of these two lawyers, focus on a fundamental issue that is the subject of fierce debate in and outside of China:

Should the legal academy and rights activists in China try to improve the current Communist Party-run sytem by supporting well-intentioned party leaders, or, should the seek an outright end to Communist rule?

The old “will the Emperor (i.e., Beijing) look out for us (the peasants) if we treat him right or will he not” argument?

Read this article, enjoy, and learn.