Svensson offers a survey of the literature on the history of human rights in China. She takes some stands but is generally synthesizing the work of others. It is broken into thematic chapters. One of the more interesting chapters looks at the argument that Chinese (Confucian) cultural is not compatible with western ideas of human rights. Svennson believes that the cultural argument is more of a rhetorical devise than a legitimate objection. Although many have said that Confucianism doesn't work with western ideals, Svennson dismisses that. She finds the attempt to find Confucian roots for human rights misguided. It's origin should not preclude it from being applicable to China, but the PRC uses terms like cultural imperialism to discredit human rights rhetoric. She argues that all cultures adopt some foreign ideas and make them their own. The foreignness of human rights could only be a temporary issue if the Chinese embrace it.

She also discusses how human rights entered the Chinese vocabulary. It has a spiritual connotation as the literal translation to the most used term (tianfu ren quan) is "heavenly endowed rights of people". But that term was not the only one used and only became the consensus in the early 20th century. Other terms about rights go back as far as the Han dynasty, but to call them human rights would be a stretch. Confucian culture acknowledged rights and responsibilities, but with a much greater emphasis on the responsibilities to society and family. Svensson argues that the PRC looks at the responsibilities while dissidents and NGOs look at the rights. She concludes that there is no single Confucian culture to analyze but that it depends on the interpreter. I found that argument very wimpy. The fact that there are different interpretations on history is hardly news. The responsibilities required of Confucianism were always more dominant than the rights. Even with the CCP victory in 1949, responsibilities were still more important. Only the Cultural Revolution was about to weaken their importance.

Svensson does deal with this later in the book but again not very satisfactorily. That said, this is still a great read if you are interested in the cultural and historical context of human rights in China. ( )