24 Facts About Jiang Shigong

Jiang Shigong is a Chinese legal and political theorist, who is currently the president of the Minzu University of China.

Jiang Shigong was previously a professor at Peking University Law School, and a researcher on Hong Kong affairs.

Jiang Shigong is a "conservative socialist" exponent of Xi Jinping Thought and is opposed to liberalism in China.

One of the main Chinese translators of Carl Schmitt, Jiang Shigong is a notable promoter of Schmitt's political theory in China.

Jiang Shigong describes his decision to pursue studies in law as purely accidental, motivated at the time by his lack of knowledge about alternative fields such as economics.

Jiang Shigong matriculated at Renmin University of China, graduating in 1990, and went on to receive a master's degree at Peking University in 1996 and a doctorate there in 1999.

Jiang Shigong's thesis was titled Punishment and the Rule of Law, and was published as a book in edited form in 2009.

Jiang Shigong described the efforts he spent learning to read systematically as a student in a 2018 interview: as an undergraduate he would go to the library to read Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason every morning, only managing two or three pages a day; subsequently he read Chinese translations of Sigmund Freud and Erich Fromm "until he was tired of reading".

From 2004 to 2008 Jiang Shigong worked at the Hong Kong Liaison Office.

Jiang Shigong has published on Hong Kong's role in the Chinese political system, and he is believed to have authored or contributed to the 2014 white paper The Practice of the 'One Country, Two Systems' Policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Jiang Shigong was appointed as the vice president of the Minzu University of China, affiliated with the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, in October 2023.

Jiang Shigong was appointed as a member of the university's CCP Committee's Standing Committee.

Jiang Shigong has been described as a member of the Chinese New Left, a "conservative socialist", and an implicit Legalist.

Jiang Shigong played a significant role in the introduction of the thought of far-right legal theorist Carl Schmitt in China, and is a "preeminent representative" of Schmittian theory in the country who uses the theories to justify state power.

Jiang Shigong has attacked the thought of John Rawls on the basis that reasoning from the veil of ignorance cannot contribute to political legitimacy: the legitimacy of the state is premised on the civilisational values it embodies and cannot be understood rationally.

Jiang Shigong concludes that it is China's responsibility, alongside other nations, to construct a blueprint for the second world empire: the reconstruction of Chinese civilisation and a new world empire are mutually reinforcing.

Jiang Shigong holds that the Chinese Communist Party, as the institutional leader of the people and the "fundamental law that acts as the absolute constitution", should be constitutionally defined as the sovereign of China.

In 2018, Jiang Shigong published a commentary on Party general secretary Xi Jinping's report to the 19th National Congress of the CCP.

Jiang Shigong states that Xi is a charismatic leader who exceeds institutional constraints and constitutes the ideological and spiritual centre of the Chinese state.

Jiang Shigong is a prominent adviser to the Chinese government on Hong Kong affairs, and some of his statements have elicited controversy in Hong Kong.

In 2014, during the debate over the Practice of the 'One Country, Two Systems' Policy white paper, Jiang Shigong responded to criticisms of the report by the Hong Kong Bar Association, calling the organisation "unprofessional" and "politicised".

Jiang Shigong stated that Hong Kong lawyers had a duty to be patriotic and loyal to the Chinese state, just as lawyers in the British system are loyal to the monarch.

Subsequently, in 2016, Jiang Shigong suggested at a forum that the post of Chief Executive be split in two, with one executive responsible to people from Hong Kong and the other under the direct control of the Beijing government.

Jiang Shigong supported the Hong Kong national security law passed in 2020.