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Climbing trees to catch fish A curious to-and-fro about China’s constitution bodes ill for political reform Aug 17th 2013? FOR well over a century, Chinese scholars have been arguing about national constitutions. In the final years of the Qing emperors, some thought that turning the last imperial dynasty into a constitutional monarchy might forestall its collapse. Conservatives long resisted. But in 1906 a “constitutional reform commission” did report to the Empress Dowager, Cixi. “The real reason”, it concluded, “why other countries have become wealthy and powerful lies in the fact that they have a constitution and decide [important issues] through public discussion.” The dynasty collapsed in 1911. But these days the Communist Party seems to think those Qing reformers were wrong: China does not need a constitution at all, or at least not one that has to be enforced. The People’s Republic of China, founded in 1949, is in fact on its fourth constitution. Yet since mid-May the official press has turned an academic debate about “constitutionalism” into a political campaign against the idea that every institution, ie, the party, should be subject to the constitution—an idea so preposterous, the?People’s Daily?argued in one of three fronteditorials this month, that it was “like climbing trees to catch fish”. The paper said that constitutionalism is a plot hatched by American intelligence agencies. What is more, America’s smugness about its own constitution is misplaced, since the document’s purpose is to “guarantee the fundamental power of the bourgeoisie”. In this section A bubble in pessimism Climbing trees to catch fish Related topics Politics Government and politics World politics Asia-Pacific politics Chinese politics So there. But why these archaic leftist rants should appear now is puzzling. The reaction to liberal-sounding utterances by the party’s new leader, Xi Jinping, last December may have something to do with it. In a speech to mark the 30th anniversary