Sun Yat-Sen and Three Notable Chinese Characteristics within the Chinese Constitutions (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject Law - Public Law / Constitutional Law / Basic Rights, grade: Pass (Original version), Queen Mary University of London, course: LL.M (Public Law), language: English, abstract: 'Chinese characteristics' has become a term commonly used to explain why China is different from the rest of the world. However, it has raised the question of whether China really is so different. In the field of constitutionalism, Sun Yat-Sen was the first Chinese politician who embraced Chinese characteristics and constructed the world's first theory of democracy with 'Chinese characteristics' in the early twentieth century. His theory thus enlightens us on the question of whether China really is so different.

Sun Yat-Sen's theory of democracy consists of three notable 'Chinese characteristics' - the pentapartite separation of powers system, direct democracy with an institutional arrangement of representation, and the constitutional single party system. However, all of these 'Chinese characteristics' are rooted in Sun Yat-Sen's misunderstanding of 'Western' democracy. It is even more troubling that the incompetent amendments made by Sun Yat-Sen, who was a physician, not only failed to democratise China, but also produced a permanent dictatorship in China. In addition, his allegation that China is different from the rest of the world is not substantiated by logic - any amendment which is based upon a misunderstanding of the original concept is logically false, regardless of who is the originator of the amendment.