China's Human Rights Theory Of Liberal Intellectuals And Its Historical Orientation In 1920s And 1930s

The Human Rights Campaign in China in 1930s was an important political and ideological content, representing a rise of important modern political trends. There were only ten to twenty cadres dedicated to this movement which only lasted for a few years. They were Hu Shi, Luo Longji, etc, representative of a group of returned students from Europe and the United States, who were the bourgeois intellectuals belonging to another reformist faction in modern China. From 1929, they began to start their own "Crescent" magazine as the basic battlefield and launched a Human Rights Campaign against KMT and the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek, appealing for human rights protection, convention enaction and democracy upholding. Human rights faction (HRF) in this campaign embodies the ideas of the value of human respect. Their rational thinking on the basis of forward-looking laid a framework for China's modernization, representing the highest level of human rights awareness except for human rights theory in the Marxist theory. In the ideological sphere under Chiang's administration, HRF's theory was like a meteor crossing the sky and quickly being engulfed by the dark. However, they still left glory in the history of China with a valuable legacy for ideological sphere. Not only did HRF oppose the KMT's authoritarian rule, they were also, limited by the class stand, against Marxism-Leninism, against the Chinese Communist Party. Therefore, there was yet no verdict, in China's modern political research, of their evaluation and recognition. This paper will discuss the Human Rights Campaign in five parts.The first part outlines the rise of the Human Rights Campaign in historical conditions and social environment.The second part covers the basic content of HRF's theory. These mainly include: protection of human rights and opposition of trampling on human rights in the name of country and laws; Requests of "ruling by people" in opposition to the KMT's "party ruling" and admonishing polices; requests of "ruling by law" and the development of a constitution; requiring "freedom of thinking and expression" against "thoughts unification"; advocating gradual improvement against violent revolution.The third part analyses the reasons for their failure. First, their advocates of social reform departed from the practical requirements. Second, their social basis was weak. Third, HRF, like one of those parties, wanted to follow the Anglo-American-style bourgeois republic road. This will inevitably lead to the opposition and attacks of other dissident factions. Fourth, their activities had a strong pedantic style and Confucian ethos, lack of unified thinking and cohesion.A brief analysis and evaluation is given in the fourth part to the human rights fraction theory.Fifth part is to analyze the fate and destination of the HRF's representatives across the Taiwan Strait in new China after its establishment in 1949.