ABSTRACT
Citizenship is one of the prime benefits (and burdens: citizens are expected to obey laws, pay taxes, and serve in the military) of modern countries. However, citizenship is a relatively new idea even in Western countries, where not long ago residents were “subjects” rather than citizens, and in other places citizenship is conceived differently if at all. Thomas Janoski contends that Chinese citizenship is shaped by Confucianism, which stresses commun itarian - ism over individualism and obligations over rights; since the Communist revolution in 1949, citizenship has further been constrained by one-party government. Not surprisingly, then, “the idea of ‘citizen’ with rights and obligations is somewhat new to people in China” (2014: 371). To measure its progress, Janoski separates citizenship into three areas of rights-legal, political, and social. Legal rights involve the rule of law (e.g. effective and impartial courts, trustworthy police, etc.), property rights, freedom of speech, and religious freedom, among others. Political rights include citizens’ ability to participate in the political process, such as voting. In both of these areas, Janoski finds China falling far short of countries like the United States and Canada and lower than Russia and Indonesia. In the realm of social rights,
China does much better: citizens can expect housing, health care, education, and pensions from the government. In fact, Janoski opines that “it is a characteristic of communist societies to provide decent social rights while neglecting political and legal rights” (379). He predicts that, as China develops economically, the country “could develop stronger citizenship rights, with the execption that political rights will develop very slowly and citizen obligations (e.g. promoting economic growth and social harmony) will be stronger” (382).
