Rule of Law in China and Information Equality-Following Mr. Yi Zhongtian’s Speech

According to Yi Zhongtian, a society ruled by law demands a premise of four types of major equality. That is, humans are equal before the contract, the law, the truth, and the morality. It makes sense, and also has historical and practical grounds, so it should be studied as the subject of rule of law in China.

The idea of equality has long been produced by mankind. Lao Tzu in China pointed out in his Five Thousand Words: “The way of heaven is more than enough to make up for the inadequacy; the way of the people is the other way round. The peasant uprisings in Chinese history speaking of “enforcing justice on behalf of heaven” did probably not exceed Lao Tzu, and it is most likely to pull Lao Tzu’s banner to impress others.

And Yi Zhongtian’s so-called four types of major equality should be something that appeared in modern human civilization, and it is not as universal as the idea of equality in the world. This is because the four types of major equality not only reflected in ideology, but also more importantly in contract, jurisprudence, truth, and morality, are an organic unity of theory and practice for their embodiment in the ideological consciousness, legal system, social contract, ethics and other various aspects of civilization. China advocates “core values of socialism”, among which are the core concepts or core values of “democracy”, “freedom”, “equality”, “fairness” and “rule of law”, manifesting the connection between ancient Chinese civilization and modern world civilization, and becoming the leading ideology of social governance and civilization construction in the process of China’s modernization at present and in future. But Yi Zhongtian is Yi Zhongtian after all. In these universal core values, he finds that the relationship between equality and the rule of law is not equal, but they have a relationship between premise and result. That is to say, the premise of the rule of law is the existence of equality. If there is no equality, the law will become a tool for some people to control others. Not only will there be no rule of law, on the contrary, the society will go to the opposite, which is the rule of man. And even more terrifying is that some people distort the law to punish other people out of their seemingly sounding reasons, which push the social injustice to the extreme. Therefore, according to Yi Zhongtian, if you want to build a country ruled by law, you must first emphasize the principle of equality, and implement equal rights. Otherwise, a society ruled by law can only be a Barmecide feast. At the time of the immense disaster caused by the COVID19, some officials announced that the virus is not infectious among humans, which proves to be wrong. On the other hand, Li Wenliang and some other doctors out of their knowledge and conscience chose to tell their relatives and friends in an informal and private circle for being not allowed to publicize the truth, and then they were admonished by the local police for spreading the rumor and criticized by China Central Television. Consequently, when the people were happily waiting for the Chinese New Year, the crisis came down bringing irreparable losses to China and the whole world. If this disaster is a national grief, then this national grief results from the loss of information first and then the loss of rule of law. Once the rule of law loses the equality between people, it is useless. From this point of view, Yi Zhongtian does have the profoundness of a historian, which has far exceeded the hundred schools of thought in Lecture Room.

Mr. Yi Zhongtian, who became famous in CCTV’s “Lecture Room”, is still vigorous in his mind, and many of his wonderful speeches continue to spread on the Internet. In particular, his recent video on the rule of law in China has gained wider approval.

But following Yi Zhongtian’s thinking, I found that there is still room for improvement in his ideology of ruling by law. That is, the four types of major equality as the premise of the rule of law are not enough, for the lack of information equality, which means that everyone is equal before the information. Moreover, in the information society, information equality should be at the top of the other four types of equality.

What is information equality? That is, everyone has the right to know the information and the right to spread it. “Wolf is coming!” in this ancient fable, everyone has the right to know and the power to spread the information “wolf is coming”. Only with this kind of information can people protect themselves and avoid disaster. On the contrary, if only some people know that the wolf is coming and they make a cry, those who do not know the information or have not heard the cry will probably be eaten by the wolf.  Although this is only a pre-modern story, its significance remains the same. Especially in the information age, if a few people monopolize information, the fate of most other people will be held in the hands of those who obtain the information, resulting in injustice and even disaster. If intimidation and punishment are given to people who accidentally know the information, where is the justice of the law? Where is the value of law?

Why should we promote information equality? The fundamental reason is that compared with the industrial era and the enlightenment era in which Yi Zhongtian’s ideology of rule of law is based, the acquisition and dissemination of information in today’s information society have formed part of the fundamental interests of people, directly affecting their interests and even their fate. In a society that promotes equality and justice, some people suffer because of unfair information, which reflects the biggest social injustice. Of course, commercial information, technical information, military intelligence, etc. may involve exclusivity and should not be disclosed. It needs to be confidential, because this information relates to the interests of partial groups, and is not directly concerned with the safety of the entire society and the people. Therefore, industry rules and professional rules should be followed. However, information about disease or epidemic, public health and medical treatment, public safety and other aspects involves the human life safety and social stability, so it should be revealed to the public and known by everyone despite their occupation, status, morality, or legal status (including those deprived of political rights). As long as he is an individual, he has the right to know the information of the crisis about the nature, disease or epidemic, public health and public safety, so as to take precautions and protect themselves. Management organizations at all levels in a civil society, especially the epidemic prevention system and natural disaster alert system, also need to release this information to the entire society and everyone without worry. No announcement is equal to negligence. If a widespread disaster occurs for no revealing of the information that should be or must be published, it is a crime. In the same way, in the face of disease or epidemic, public medical care, public health, and public safety related to human life safety and social stability, individuals not only have the right to know, but also to decide whether to publish and disseminate it, alerting people to avoid dangers.  Especially today, the alert system is a social system controlled by the government, the release of information in a small scale will not affect the entire society; instead, it will be covered and corrected by the national alert system and publicity system. In this case, the release of public safety information by individuals is a manifestation of civil rights. Of course, due to the soundness of the law, if citizens deliberately create rumors, they will naturally be punished by the law. However, the sanctions imposed by the law are not the same as the citizens’ right to publicize information or the unconditioned protection of citizens’ right to publicize information. On the contrary, the targets of the sanctions by the law are words and deeds proved to be intentionally fact-fabricated and cause adverse social consequences. The law will not sanction citizens’ right to disclosure information or their right to speak. If the law is not used to protect citizens’ right to publicize information, but to suppress and sanction speakers, it distorts the law and makes the law the biggest producer of social injustice. Furthermore, the alert information must occur before the disaster or at the initial stage, while the legal sanctions must be after the incident, after the evidence is collected, or the truth of the fact that has occurred is obtained. Therefore, to impose legal sanctions on the whistleblower before the incident happens is like putting the cart before the horse. If the whistleblower is sanctioned when the disaster has already revealed signs, it will destroy the legal process and the spirit of the law—justice. Aren’t there worries of being hit by disaster? Therefore, in these days to emphasize the rule of law, we must first promote information equality before everyone. Only when everyone is equal before information and has freedom of speech can there be true equality, true justice and true rule of law for all.

The reason why I put information equality at the top of the five major equality is because the so-called information equality is the power of citizens ‘freedom of speech stipulated in the Constitution of the People‘s Republic of China. If a person is not even free to speak, the equality of contract, the equality of law, the equality of truth and the equality of morality are all a matter of fighting against others over a distance and losing all possibilities of equality. I hope that Mr. Yi Zhongtian will also accept my five equality statements. Think about this, if Yi Zhongtian himself did not freely publish the four theories of equality, where would there be any discussion about equality, or any implementation of the rule of law? Not to mention the five types of major equality I advocate here!

The epidemic resistance in Wuhan, Hubei and China and the world is still going on nervously. We can only shout “hang on!” to the victims, mourn for the dead, so that the living can live in peace. For the rest life after the epidemic, there is no such thing as rejoice about it, let alone victory. It is hoped that the entire nation could learn from the loss of information and the loss of rule of law, and avoid the same disaster coming to the world again. We must seriously reflect on our deficiencies in the process of building the society ruled by law, and truly implement the people-oriented concept of the rule of law, and realize equality of information, contract, law, truth, and morality among the mankind.

——from WeChat Public Account <Bie-modern>, Feb. 25