On Tuesday 10 April 2018, Professor Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard (柏思德) of the Department of International Economics and Management and Director of the China Studies Program at Copenhagen Business School, hosted a seminar on:
State-Owned Enterprise Reform and Party-Business Relations in China
Chinese business groups have grown into huge enterprises with significant economic and political clout. As a result of institutional reform, corporate restructuring, and listings in China and abroad, these business groups, especially within the energy sector, have become so big, profitable and well-connected that they are challenging the authority of the central government. Yet, increasingly, business leaders are appointed to government positions as ministers or provincial governors.
What is the mechanism of this elite circulation and how does it impact the power relations between Party-state- business in China as well as the likelihood of fundamental state-owned enteprise (SOE) reform?
The seminar advanced the notion of ‘fragmented integration’ to characterize the evolving relationship between business groups and the Party-state.
The seminar also argued that in order to abolish vested interests and interest politics, reform of the role, function, and organization of Chinese business groups is necessary.
Professor Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard, Department of International Economics and Management and Director of the China Studies Program, Copenhagen Business School
Professor Brødsgaard is the author or editor of 30 books, most recently Chinese Politics as Fragmented Authoritarianism: Earthquakes, Energy and Environment (2016); From Accelerated Accumulation to Socialist Market Economy in China: Economic Discourse andDevelopment From 1953 to the Present (2017) and Critical Readings on the Chinese Communist Party, 4 vols. (2017).
Professor Brødsgaard has held visiting research appointments in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and the USA. He is, among others, member of the International Advisory Board of the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore; member of the Board of Sino-Danish University Centre for Education and Research, and member of the Board of Directors, the Danish-Chinese Business Forum. He is also a Non-resident Professor at the Institute of Public Policy, South China University of Technology; an Honorary Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Contemporary China, School of Government, Peking University.
Scholars revisited discussions of the Chinese model of governance and articulate the old and new features of Xi Jinping’s model of governance. Most current research on the China model debates whether there is such model, and the characteristics and essences of the model if it exists. This conference discussed, from a variety of perspectives including critical empirical case studies, the various manifestations of the Chinese model of governance, ranging from local governance, local election, civil society to economic policies.
Opening Remarks were given by Professor Julie Yu-Wen Chen of the University of Helsinki. Keynote speakers at the conference were Oscar Almén, Uppsala University, Sweden, and Zhongyuan Wang from Fudan University, China.
Constantin Holzer of University College Cork spoke on ‘The Principal-Agent Dichotomy of Public Goods Provision in China and The Role of Entrepreneurship’ and Natalie Ruvimbo Hodzi (University of Helsinki) discussed Zimbabwean elite opinions of China’s model of governance. Other presentations and remarks were given by Adam Knight (Oxford University), Riccardo Berti and Mariagrazia Semprebon (lawyers from Italy) and Coleman Mahler (UC Berkeley).
Questions and media inquiries
Questions about the conference can be directed to the Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Helsinki, Professor Julie Chen, at julie.chen (at) helsinki.fi.
The Finnish China Law Center, composed of 10 member institutions and based in the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki, would like to convey its sincerest wishes for the Chinese New Year to its friends and partners in China, the Nordic countries, and around the world.
‘At the start of the Year of the Dog’, says Professor Ulla Liukkunen, Director of the Center, ‘the Finnish China Law Center would like to reiterate how much we value our friendships and partnerships in China and internationally’.
‘We will continue to widen and deepen our international relationships in the upcoming year, during which we have planned an exciting array of events and activities on Chinese law and legal culture in Finland and China’.
祝你新年快乐!
Questions about the activities of the Center, including the upcoming China Law Research Workshop to be held on 19 April 2018, can be directed to the Coordinator of the Finnish China Law Center, stuart.mooney (at) helsinki.fi.
ELSA is an international, independent, non-political and non-profit organisation run by and for students and recent graduates interested in achieving academic and personal excellence in addition to their legal or law-related studies at university.
The visit by ELSA was hosted by Professor Pia Letto-Vanamo, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki.
Professor Pia Letto-Vanamo, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki, speaking during the ELSA visit
Dean Letto-Vanamo is a legal historian and comparative lawyer specialized in European legal history, history of European integration, Nordic legal culture(s) and transnational law, with a strong interest in Chinese law and Chinese legal culture.
During her opening speech at the event, Dean Letto-Vanamo delineated the history of comparative law and Chinese legal education and scholarship in Finland, and underscored the increasing importance of understanding Nordic law not just in its European context, but from the global perspective, including in comparison with Chinese law.
Professor Ulla Liukkunen, also of the University of Helsinki, was another speaker at the event. Professor Liukkunen is Director of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture and has been recently elected as a Member of the Board of Directors of the European China Law Studies Association (欧洲中国法研究协会).
Professor Ulla Liukkunen, Director of the Finnish China Law Center, sharing her experiences as a China law researcher with visiting ELSA students
Professor Liukkunen spoke about the Finnish China Law Center’s role in facilitating and promoting China law and comparative law research, and about the increasing Nordic-wide approach to Chinese legal education and research. During her presentation, Professor Liukkunen also drew upon her research in Chinese law and comparative law involving China, and highlighted the importance of taking local conditions and culture into consideration when conducting comparative research with Chinese law.
Dr Yihong Zhang giving the main presentation during the ELSA student visit
Dr Zhang, who lectures at the University of Helsinki and is responsible for its popular annual summer school program in Chinese law, drew upon her academic and professional experience in China when discussing the Chinese legal system in a comparative context, including its foundations, sources of law, the way law is applied and enforced, and current legal ‘hot topics’ in China.
A short discussion followed Dr Zhang’s presentation, during which time students asked questions about China’s criminal justice system and the rule of law in China.
The Center strongly encourages students – and anyone else – interested in Chinese law and legal culture to follow its blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Questions about Chinese law can be directed to the Coordinator of the Center, Stuart Mooney, at stuart.mooney (@) helsinki.fi.
Luova’s current research investigates how China’s environmental governance is imbued with local experiments and variation. She has found that enforcement of environmental regulations varies greatly.
‘There are striking differences in enforcement between the bureaucratic North and flexible South, and the wealthy East and less-developed West’, Luova says.
‘The recent re-centralization efforts and stricter environmental policy enforcement have not been effective in diminishing variation because of strong local interests and weak capacities in many cities’.
According to Luova, slack enforcement means that there can be large diversity in implementation even among sub-municipal units in a city.
‘It is therefore very important to pay attention to regional variation when dealing with China’.
‘Mega-city districts are nowadays powerful actors. With sub-municipal variation remaining unexplored, my recent research project has analysed the implementation of environmental policies and regulations in three urban districts in the city of Tianjin’, she says.
Outi Luova, Director of the Finnish University Network for Asian Studies and Vice Director of the Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS) at the University of Turku, guest lecturing in China in October 2017.
In conducting her in-country research, Luova has faced increasing challenges in obtaining official documents and arranging interviews with Chinese civil servants as a result of a ‘tightening political atmosphere’.
‘I have been able to conduct interviews only thanks to my simultaneous participation in official sister-city delegation visits to Tianjin’, Luova says.
‘During my visits to China, I arranged focus-group interviews at city and district level departments of education and environmental protection. I also had a possibility to visit several so called “green schools” in Tianjin and get acquainted with local environmental NGOs’.
In addition to urban governance in China, Luova’s teaching and research interests include regional cooperation in East Asia, domestic migration in China, management of international labour migration in China and East Asia, ethnic issues in China and more generally, regional features and differences in China.
Luova’s research on regional differences in the implementation and enforcement of environmental law and policy in China, ‘Environmental policies enter the educational sector: Different shades of green at district level’, will be published in Greening China’s Urban Governance: Tackling Environmental and Sustainability Challenges (Jørgen Delman, Ren Yuan, Outi Luova, Mattias Burell, Oscar Almén eds) by Springer in 2018. Other related publications are also in the pipeline.
Speeches during the event, which was organized by Professor Jan Klabbers and Post-Doctoral Researcher Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaça, evoked Liu Xiaobo’s experience, investigated its legacy and reflected on broader themes of China’s constitutional, rights, ethics and international relations thinking and practice.
The event’s keynote speech was given by Jean-Philippe Béja of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique & Centre de recherches internationales, who spoke on ‘Liu Xiaobo’s Legacy: Life in Truth, the Magic Weapon Against Post-Totalitarian Lie’.
Other speakers included Hermann Aubié (Aston University), who spoke on ‘Unlearning Enmity and Hatred: Listening to Liu Xiaobo’s Voice of Conscience by Revisiting his Struggle for Human Dignity and a Future Free China’ and Fu Hualing (University of Hong Kong), who spoke about public interest lawyering in China.
Professor Jan Klabbers speaking on ethical leadership in Helsinki, 12 January 2018
Professor Panu Minkkinen of the University of Helsinki spoke about the significance of human rights in the context of critical legal theory, after which Eva Pils (King’s College, London) discussed ‘China’s Dual State And Its ‘Enemies’ Under Xi Jinping’.
Professor Fu Hualing speaking during the ‘The Legacy of Liu Xiaobo’ conference in Helsinki, 12 January 2018
Professor Jan Klabbers of the University of Helsinki discussed ethical leadership, drawing upon his research on virtue ethics, and Post-Doctoral Researcher Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaça’s (University of Helsinki) talk covered values and China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’.
Presentations were also given by Associate Professor Michael W. Dowdle (National University of Singapore), Professor Ralph Weber (University of Basel) and Professor Justin Tiwald (San Francisco State University), and the morning and afternoon sessions were chaired respectively by Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Maria Varaki and Associate Professor Pamela Slotte.
Dr Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaça, an organizer of the event, speaking on values and China’s Belt and Road Initiative, University of Helsinki, 12 January 2018
China’s new Food Safety Law was issued in 2009 and revised in 2015. For Post-Doctoral Researcher Harriet Lonka, the chance to be a visiting scholar at Peking University Law School and research this important legislative reform was an opportunity not to be missed.
Dr Harriet Lonka, from Finnish China Law Center member institution the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), was a visiting Post-Doctoral Researcher at Peking University from 1 October to 17 November 2017.
The highly respected Peking University is a key strategic partner of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture, as detailed in the recently published Report on the First Four Years of the Center.
‘My research in China focused on the new Chinese Food Safety Law. This legislation is an important milestone in China’s legislative reforms and also a key issue concerning trade policy and China’s relations with its international trade partners, especially the WTO’.
During her time in Peking University Law School, Dr Lonka worked closely with Chinese legal scholar Professor Chen Yifeng.
Dr Lonka has a long background in the field of risk management studies, and during her PhD studies she studied the Finnish government’s Security Strategy work and how it effects the shaping of legislation.
‘Chinese Food Safety legislation is comparable in its target and format to the risk regulation tradition in Europe and in Finland’, Dr Lonka says.
‘In my current research, I focus on the aspects of the implementation of the law that have been identified as potential ‘Achilles heels’ of enforcement of the Food Safety Law in China’.
Dr Lonka believes that there are new and interesting challenges in applying measures of risk surveillance, risk management and risk communication at different levels of administration in China.
Post-Doctoral Researcher Dr Harriet Lonka (University of Eastern Finland), during her study visit to Peking University Law School, 2017
Given the angle of her research, she envisages many more opportunities for fruitful research cooperation with Chinese colleagues in the future.
Dr Lonka’s research was also supported by the fact that she had contacts to the local level administration and foodstuff producers in Hunan Province, which enabled useful data collection in the field.
The opportunity to conduct research not only in Beijing, but also in Hunan Province, was beneficial in many respects, Dr Lonka says.
‘My study visit provided me a lot of important background knowledge and new understanding of Chinese legislation, how it is created and implemented. This is of great interest to me as my own research field is legislative studies. Legislative studies concentrate on how laws are drafted and implemented and what defines their effect’.
One area of particular interest to Dr Lonka is the question of ‘decentralized development’ in China.
‘I would wish to better understand the structures and mechanisms for guidance and supervision from the central government level to provinces and further to the local level in China’.
‘The study of Chinese Food Safety Law provides an excellent case study to scrutinize these phenomena. I think this research focus can help us in general better understand the ‘many faces of China’ and how that effects the legislative processes and implementation of the administrative laws in the country’.
Logo of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki
Finnish China Law Center member institution, the University of Helsinki, will hold a day-long conference ‘The Legacy of Liu Xiaobo’ on 12 January 2018.
The life and choices of Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and recently deceased, stand as an example of political and ethical activism in a world yearning for such examples.
This event evokes Liu Xiaobo’s experience, investigates its legacy and reflects on broader themes of China’s constitutional, rights, ethics and international relations thinking and practice.
9:30 – 10:10 Key note speech:Jean-Philippe Béja (Centre national de la recherche scientifique & Centre de recherches internationales): “Liu Xiaobo’s Legacy: Life in Truth, the Magic Weapon Against Post-Totalitarian Lie”
10:10 – 10:30 Hermann Aubié (Aston University): “Unlearning Enmity and Hatred: Listening to Liu Xiaobo’s Voice of Conscience by Revisiting his Struggle for Human Dignity and a Future Free China”
Coffee Break until 11
1. Rights, Constitutionalism, Democracy (Chair: Maria Varaki)
11:00 – 11:20 Fu Hualing (University of Hong Kong): “Public Interest Lawyering in China: Escalation and Backlash?”
11:20 – 11:40 Panu Minkkinen (University of Helsinki): “Why Are Human Rights Important (Even For A Crit)?”
11:40 – 12:00 Eva Pils (King’s College, London): “China’s Dual State And Its ‘Enemies’ Under Xi Jinping”
12:00 – 12:20 Michael W. Dowdle (National University of Singapore): “China and Dual Constitutionalism”
Discussion until 13
Lunch 13:00 – 14:30
2. Ethical Leadership and Chinese Ethics (Chair: Pamela Slotte)
14:30 – 14:50 Jan Klabbers (University of Helsinki): “On Ethical Leadership”
14:50 – 15:10 Justin Tiwald (San Francisco State University): “Character-centered Theories of Governance in Confucian Political Thought”
15:10 – 15:30 Ralph Weber (University of Basel): tbd
15:30 – 15:50 Guilherme Vasconcelos Vilaça (University of Helsinki): “Values and the Belt & Road Initiative”
Discussion until 16:30
Conference Dinner
Further information
Please contact Project Coordinator Hector Nystedt at hector.nystedt (at) helsinki.fi.
On Wednesday 29 November 2017, the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture hosted a guest lecture by Professor LONG Weiqiu of Beihang University, China.
Professor Long, a Fulbright Scholar and Dean of the Law School of Beihang University, gave a lecture on ‘Codification of Civil Law in China: Recent Developments and Future Prospects’.
Dean Long’s lecture introduced the motivations, conditions and bases of the current codification of civil law in China, and discussed the controversies regarding the framework and other crucial matters.
Dean Long also commented on the relationship between the new civil code and the existing civil law system in China, and shared his thoughts on the prospects for future codification.
Professor Matti Mikkola commenting on Dean Long’s guest lecture in the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki on 29 November 2017.
Upon his return, the Finnish China Law Center took the opportunity to discuss with Dr Hodzi his experience as Visiting Scholar at one of China’s best universities, and to learn more about his current research into Chinese politics and law.
Finnish China Law Center: Congratulations on your appointment as a Visiting Scholar at Renmin University. Before we discuss that experience, could you please say a little about your background?
Dr Hodzi:I’m aPostdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki. Before joining the University of Helsinki, I was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies, Ethiopia. I have also worked for various international and regional organizations in my home country of Zimbabwe, as well as Kenya and Germany on projects about democratic governance and transitional justice.
Finnish China Law Center: Can you explain your main research interests?
Dr Hodzi: I’ve long had an interest in China’s international political and legal engagement, including in relation to Africa. I obtained my PhD from a Chinese university, Lingnan University in Hong Kong, where I researched political and legal aspects of China’s military engagement in Africa. My current research focuses on emerging powers and global governance. In particular, I look at China-Africa security relations and politics in Africa, including the domestic and legal implications of China’s engagement.
Finnish China Law Center: How was your research assisted by working as a Visiting Scholar in China?
Dr Hodzi: Having lived and worked and lived in both China and different Africa has given me a more nuanced understanding of the different political and legal cultures and orders at play across China and throughout Africa. I’ve come to appreciate that reading, discussing and researching about China is nothing compared to seeing it in real life! This certainly was my realization during my research in mainland China. Being able to discuss with scholars, practitioners and other relevant actors in China – both Chinese and from other countries – enriched my research and has opened new avenues of future collaboration for which I am very grateful.
Dr Hodzi: This theme is timely and important, and it connects directly with my current and future work. Over the next two years my research focus will be on the Chinese model of development and governance in Asia and Africa. As China gets comfortable in its global primacy role, all roads are leading to Beijing. In the jostling for a piece of the China cake, there is obviously bound to be conflict and contractions regarding international law. For instance, this is seen in the case of the South China Sea dispute, as was discussed during the China Research Day and Asian Studies Days events, as well as anti-dumping measures against Chinese companies. I would also say that security issues will become even more important for both China and other countries as Chinese firms and citizens go abroad.
Dr Hodzi, Visiting Scholar at Renmin University, with a friend outside the Forbidden City, Beijing, September 2017
Finnish China Law Center: You are helping organize a Conference on the so-called ‘Chinese model’ of governance next year. What thematic ground will be conference cover, and why is the conference important?
Dr Hodzi: The Confucius Center at the University of Helsinki is organizing the Helsinki Conference on Chinese Model of Governance. It will be held on 20 March 2018. During the conference, scholars from Finland and abroad will re-visit discussions of the Chinese model of governance. The old and new features of President Xi’s model of governance will be discussed at length. The conference is important because the bulk of contemporary scholarship on the ‘China model’ questions whether such a model even exists. And even those who acknowledge the existence of such a model debate its characteristics. In light of this ongoing debate, the conference will discuss the various manifestations of the Chinese model of governance. These manifestations range from local governance, local election, civil society to economic policies. A particular strength of the conference will be its interdisciplinary nature, using a variety of perspectives such as critical empirical case studies. I’m already excited about it! We have great keynote speakers, too: Oscar Almén, Uppsala University, Sweden, and Zhongyuan Wang from Fudan University, China.
Finnish China Law Center: Finally, we understand that your book will be published shortly. Congratulations, and could you please say a little about it?
Dr Hodzi:My book, The End of a Non-intervention Era: China in African Civil Wars, will be published by Palgrave Macmillan (London) next year (fall 2018). I hope that it will help set the research agenda on emerging security issues emanating from China’s going out strategy. China is moving, and taking the world with it!
The Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture is pleased to announce an upcoming guest lecture by Professor LONG Weiqiu of Beihang University, China.
Professor Long, a Fulbright Scholar and Dean of the Law School of Beihang University, will give a lecture on ‘Codification of Civil Law in China: Recent Developments and Future Prospects’.
Dean Long’s lecture will introduce the motivations, conditions and bases of the current codification of civil law in China. It will discuss and analyze the controversies regarding the framework and other crucial matters, and also comment on the relationship between the new civil code and the existing civil law system in China. Finally, Dean Long will share his thoughts on the prospects for future codification.
Professor Long Weiqiu, Dean of the School of Law, University of Beihang
The lecture will be held on Wednesday, 29 November 2017 at 10:15 in the Meeting Room of the Law Faculty, University of Helsinki (Room 545, 5th floor, Porthania Building, Yliospistonkatu 3, Helsinki).
The presentation will be followed by a discussion, and the event is expected to finish at 11:30.
The lecture is free and open to the public. No registration is required.
If you have any questions about the event, please contact Stuart Mooney, Coordinator of the Finnish China Law Center, via email at stuart.mooney (at) helsinki.fi.
University of Helsinki
Finnish China Law Center member institution, the 
